Fairytales and Ferryboats
by Errik's angel
Summary: This is the sequel to Learning to Live, but reading that is not necesary. Essentially just a cute, fluffy MerDer wedding story with occasional plot. Great break from all the drama on this site and in the show.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the sequel to Learning to Live, but if you haven't read that one this will still make sense. Basically, the important thing to know is that Derek and Addison had a little girl, Katherine, Addison died in childbirth, and Meredith helped him raise the baby. They got back together after a while and have been for about a year and a half when this starts. **

_Hey hot stuff, dinner 2nite?_

Meredith rolled her eyes at Derek's text and quickly typed back, _Make plans and Im there, _before shoving the phone make in her pocket, and picking up a chart from the nurse's station.

Flipping it opened, she tried to refresh herself on the problems with this patient, when her phone vibrated insistently in her pocket.

_Iz watching K, b ready at 7._

She slipped her phone back into her pocket. She loved it when he would surprise her like this. They hardly had time to breath with a two year old and intense careers, but somehow he would still find time to spontaneously take her on dates like this. It made the long days at the hospital so much easier to get through.

Frowning at the chart, Meredith paged Christina for a cardio consult on her patient. He had come in with seizures and a bleeding brain, but post op he was still much too weak.

Closing the chart, she was met with blue eyes staring at her adoringly. Startled, she took a step backwards.

"Don't sneak up on me like that."

Derek took a step forward, so they were once again standing far too close for coworkers. Not that anyone in this hospital thought they were just coworkers. Everyone had a different version of how she and Derek ended up together, but the underlying theme, that they were together, was consistent.

"You never answered my question. You looked at your phone, but you didn't answer me. I was a little hurt," Derek teased her.

"So you were spying on me too?" Her eyes smiled as she frowned at him.

"Sorry, I can't help but watch the most beautiful women in the hospital. But seriously, can you do dinner tonight?"

Meredith giggled. "I already told you."

"No you didn't," Derek argued.

"Yes I did," she countered. "I said that if you made the plans, I'd come. You made plans, so I'm coming."

Derek grinned and kissed her quickly.

"Derek!" Meredith exclaimed.

"Oh, you're too cute not to kiss at work," Derek laughed, leaning to do it again, but interrupted by his pager. He looked at it. "I've got to go." His lips barely brushed her own. "Izzie's coming at seven, and I'm off at 6:30, so I'll come home and then we'll leave, okay?"

"Sounds good. See you."

"Love you, Mer." He ran down the hallway before she could reply.

Christina came up beside her. "Date with McDreamy?"

Meredith grinned. "Apparently."

"Yeah he asked me to watch Katherine tonight, but I'm on call. Too bad because I think I'm still down a few hours from when Burke and I went away that weekend." Christina was surprisingly diligent about how their babysitting hours matched up.

Meredith waved it off. "It's no big deal, Chris. Riley's an angel, I'll watch him anytime."

"Yeah, an angel," Christina scoffed. "You should see what the angel did to my bathroom yesterday." Her affection for her son was evident even through her frustrated tone.

Laughing, Meredith asked, "Makeup or toilet paper?"

"Both. The kid is one and destroying my house. What will he do when he's 15?"

"Obviously he takes after his mother in that sense," Meredith teased.

Christina ignored the comment about her messy habits. "Who's got your kid tonight, then?"

"Izzie."

"Oh, god," Christina groaned. "Barbie is going to ruin her. Last time she had Riley, they made cookies. My son made cookies."

Meredith giggled. "I know you think Riley's a genius, but I kind of doubt he made cookies."

"Okay, Barbie made cookies. Not the point. All I'm saying is that she needs her own kids before she turns ours into happy, cooking people. And Riley is a genius."

"I think Derek's doing that pretty well on his own. Katherine loves to help him make dinner."

"It's sick." Christina shook her head. "It's also sick that we're talking like this. We are not housewives, Mer. We do not talk about raising children."

"We're not housewives," Meredith agreed. "But we talk about our babies a lot."

Christina sighed. "Whatever. So what's wrong with this patient?"

"Oh, right." Meredith handed Christina the chart. "He's still too weak three days post-op and I need a consult to rule out any heart problems."

"Any other trauma?" Christina asked as they walked towards the room, medicine replacing the conversation involving their children.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Mama, cream!" Katherine banged her spoon on the table. "Want cream!"

Meredith rolled her eyes. She was going to kill Derek for letting Katherine eat ice cream last night. Katherine hadn't stopped asking for it since.

"No, Katherine. There's not time. Mama has to get ready. Eat your yogurt." She muttered under her breath, "Izzie will give you plenty of junk anyways."

"Yes, Mama, cream!"

"Katherine, no. Just eat." Meredith sighed. Katherine was adorable when she did the stubborn two year act, but sometimes it was a little much. And right now she had twenty minutes before Izzie and Derek were getting here.

"Done." Katherine shoved her yogurt away.

Wetting a cloth, Meredith wiped Katherine's face and hands before lifting her up. "You ate okay before the yogurt," she observed, settling Katherine on her hip and carrying her up the stairs.

She set Katherine on the floor of her bedroom before going into her walk-in closet and digging through her clothes. Katherine followed her in, giggling hysterically as she hid in Derek's dress shirts.

"Seek, Mama!" Katherine exclaimed from her hiding spot.

"Oh where could Katherine be?" Meredith asked with mock enthusiasm as she pulled two dresses out.

Leaving the closet, she laid the dresses on the bed, before coming back in and pretending to look for Katherine. Soon, though, Meredith pulled the little girl out of the closet, and carried her to the bedroom, tickling her. Katherine's laughter intensified when Meredith flopped her onto the bed, and lifted her shirt to blow on her belly.

"Alright, pumpkin, which dress should Mama where?" Meredith asked, holding each one up to herself in front of the full length mirror.

"Red!" Katherine exclaimed.

"I don't have a red dress, silly. This one is blue, and this one is white," Meredith explained patiently. Katherine was no where near to mastering her clothes. She still thought everything was red.

"White," Katherine giggled, pointing to the blue dress.

"I think you're right," Meredith agreed, putting the white dress back in the closet. "This one is prettier. It matches your and daddy's eyes."

Meredith changed quickly into her new dress. It was the color of the Shepherd eyes; a halter cut low in the back that came down to her knees. Derek hadn't seen this one yet, and she had a feeling he would appreciate it.

"Pretty," Katherine observed when Meredith turned away from the mirror.

"Thanks." Meredith went into the bathroom, holding out her hand for Katherine to follow.

She fluffed her hair slightly, letting it hang in its natural waves. It looked full and for once nice enough not to have to fuss with. Touching up her makeup, she let Katherine feel helpful by handing her things to put away, and the doorbell rang just as Meredith was finishing up.

"Good timing." Meredith lifted Katherine down from the counter, and held her hand as they went back down stairs.

Getting to the front door just as Izzie was ringing the bell once again, Meredith unlocked the front door, letting Katherine open it.

"Hey, Iz."

"Oh, Meredith, you look gorgeous. Turn around," Izzie exclaimed. "I love that dress. Is it new?"

"Yeah, I bought it with Christina the other day."

"It's so pretty," Izzie gushed, before turning to Katherine who was hiding behind Meredith's leg. "Hi, Katherine."

Meredith untangled the little fingers from her leg, and drew Katherine forward by her hand. "Don't be shy, Katherine. It's Aunt Izzie."

Katherine looked at Izzie with big blue eyes for a moment before reaching her arms up for Meredith to pick her up.

"Katherine, your mommy has a pretty dress on," Izzie told her, crouching down so they were on the same level. "It will get wrinkled if she holds you."

Katherine bit on her lower lip, a habit she had acquired from Meredith, and looked questioningly up at Meredith.

"It's okay, sweetie," Meredith reassured her. "Izzie going to play with you tonight, remember? Say hi and give her a hug."

Katherine looked at Izzie cautiously. "Cookies?" she whispered.

Izzie laughed. "We did make cookies. Do you remember helping?"

Nodding slowly, Katherine allowed Izzie to pick her up, and they followed Meredith into the kitchen.

"I haven't seen you in a while, Katherine," Izzie said. "You've gotten bigger, baby."

"Not baby," Katherine said defiantly.

Meredith laughed. That was Katherine's newest idea. "Yeah, Izzie, no babies in this house, only big girls." She showed Izzie the note on the counter. "You know where everything is. Bedtime is about nine, but she had a long nap today so it's alright if it's more like nine thirty. She had dinner, feed her a mildly healthy snack before bed, read some stories, and she should go down easy."

"Okay." Izzie jiggled Katherine in her arms a little, making her laugh.

"That's about it, I think. Give her a bath whenever, pajamas are on the changing table. Cell numbers are here, call if you need anything."

The doorbell rang again.

"Ing-dong," Katherine exclaimed.

"Who in the world is that," Meredith wondered aloud. "We live in the middle of nowhere."

She pulled the door opened to find Derek standing there with a bouquet of summer flowers.

"Um, hi." She had no idea why he hadn't just opened the door himself.

"Hey, beautiful." He handed her the flowers. Seeing Izzie with Katherine over her shoulder, he asked, "Ready to go?"

Nodding, Meredith buried her nose in the sweet smelling flowers, as Katherine shouted, "Daddy," and wiggled down from Izzie's arms.

"Princess!" He swooped her up in his arms and kissed her nose. "You be a good girl tonight," he ordered, setting her back down. "Daddy is going to play with you all day tomorrow."

Katherine nodded seriously, and Meredith dropped a kiss to the top off her head, and steered her back towards Izzie, handing Izzie the flowers. "Take care of these?"

"The flowers or the kid?" Izzie joked.

"Both please."

Derek took Meredith's hand, leading her out the door. "We are going to have such a good time tonight," he promised in a low voice.

"Oh really?" She looked up at him with a huge smile.

"Really." He kissed her mouth.

"Cookies! Cookie!" They heard Katherine shout as Derek closed the door.

"She's going to have a good time too," Derek laughed.

**So that was the first chapter. I am realizing that I have no idea how long this thing is going to be, but it was most likely take us through most of the summer. I think that's good though, I need something to do without Grey's.**

**Please review and I'll continue with this asap**


	2. Chapter 2

"We're at the ferryboats," Meredith stated, highly confused as to why they were there on their date.

Derek laughed. "Great deduction."

"Why?"

"Are you Katherine now?" he teased. "And I'm not telling. Don't pout at me; you'll see in a minute."

Climbing out of the driver's seat, he walked around the car and opened the door for Meredith. He guided her along the docks with a hand on the small of her back, trying not to laugh as she stumbled along, her heels getting caught in the boards. Without even asking permission, he leaned down and swept her into his arms.

"Derek!" Meredith exclaimed. "Put me down!"

"No." He kissed her neck and carried her to the ferryboat.

"Where are we going?" Meredith asked again.

"To the ferryboat." Derek let her back to her feet once they were on the said boat.

"Why are we on the ferryboat?" Meredith giggled.

"Because this is our date, Dr. Grey," Derek finally explained. He guided her further onto the boat and onto the main dock. "See?"

Meredith's breath caught at the sight. She was shocked, to say the least. This was probably the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. And she was utterly confused as to why Derek had done it. Usually date night was just a fancy restaurant and good wine. This was elaborate.

On the deck on the empty ferryboat was a small round table, looking like a picture out of a book with its white tablecloth, candles, and place settings for two. There was a small crystal vase with a single red rose, and a chilled bottle of white wine. Behind the table was a single waiter, dressed in a suit, and standing silently in the background. The only noise was the water and gentle breeze around them as the ferry traveled further from the docks. It was the cheesiest, most romantic thing Meredith had ever seen in her life.

Derek waited nervously for her reaction as he watched her take in their surroundings. He had gone all out for this, and, while part of him knew she'd love it, there was still a feeling of nervous doubt that she would be appalled.

Her reaction came in the form of laughter. Derek winced slightly, hoping it wasn't rejection. He was reassured when she launched herself in his arms, kissing him even as she giggled into his mouth. Smiling himself, Derek wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and relishing in the feelings.

"You are so cheesy," Meredith gasped when they pulled apart.

Derek caught her lips in another kiss. "You love it."

"I do," she murmured. "I love you."

"I love you too." Derek kissed her deeply again before leading her to the table, keeping both arms around her until he pulled out her chair.

When they were both seated, Meredith asked, "So what is this, exactly?"

"It's dinner on a ferryboat," Derek explained as the waiter poured their wine.

"Yeah, but this isn't a usual date. And how do you get a whole ferryboat, anyways?"

Derek sipped his wine. "It's variety, Mer. Isn't it fun?"

Meredith smiled at him. "It is fun. And romantic. But seriously, how do you get a ferryboat?"

Laughing at her persistency, Derek said, "It's surprisingly easy after a few phone calls. Just need to talk to the right people." It was half true. Getting the boat had been easy once he got an owner, but that neglected how many phone calls and arguments it had taken to get that number.

Derek and Meredith fell into an easy conversation over their salad, discussing topics from Katherine, to current events, their mutual friends, and eventually, as usual, the hospital.

"Oh, and Mr. Beahert, the man with the bleeding aneurism?" Meredith started.

"The one you did a perfect surgery on, unassisted?" Derek interrupted.

Meredith blushed. "You were right there."

"I didn't do a thing."

Giving up the argument, Meredith continued with her story. "Christina did a consult on him this morning. He needs a value replacement. Two major surgeries in a week. Christina was thrilled though. She gets to cut."

Derek laughed. "Yang gets more excited than the interns when it comes to cutting."

Meredith's response was interrupted by the arrival of their main course of salmon and potatoes in a white sauce, and the refilling of their wine glasses.

"I though we'd stick with the water theme and do fish tonight," Derek explained.

"It's perfect," Meredith breathed, eating a delicate forkful and sighing at the taste.

Derek leaned across the table to lightly kiss her full lips. "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it. Thank you so much for this, Derek. It's so perfect." Meredith wished she could find a better word to express her feelings for this dinner.

"Anything for you," Derek told her seriously.

"Really?" Meredith sighed; just wanting him to confirm what she knew was true.

"Yes really." Derek stood up from the table and walked around to her, knowing this was the perfect moment he had been looking for since they had stepped on the boat.

Meredith moved to stand herself. "What are you doing?" she wondered.

"Sit down," Derek gently commanded, reinforcing his words with a gentle hand pressing down on her knee.

Meredith obeyed wordlessly, and sunk down into her chair, watching as he knelt down on one knee in front of her.

"Derek . . ." She couldn't have completed her thought even if he hadn't silenced her with a finger on her lips.

"Meredith . . ." Derek started, the word said almost reverently.

He looked up into her beautiful blue eyes, which were currently staring back at him in shocked disbelief. Just looking at her exquisite face sent him to a state where he could barely form thoughts, let alone words. The speech he had been practicing all day left him, and he felt helpless.

"Meredith," he repeated. "I love you . . . will you marry me?"

The words came out in a rush, and he fumbled in his pocket for the ring box. Pulling it out, he opened it carefully, watching her face as her eyes left his face and traveled to the diamond.

"Seriously?" Meredith blurted out after a pause that was far too long for Derek.

"Yes seriously." Derek normally would have found the reaction funny, but he's heart rate was still far too high to find any humor in the situation.

The next few moments were a blur as Derek saw rather than heard the word 'yes' leave Meredith's mouth, and he automatically slipped the ring onto her finger. Then she was crying and they were kissing frantically. Meredith all but fell from the chair, and they ended up wrapped in each other's arms, kissing on the deck of the ferryboat.

Too soon for Derek, Meredith broke the kiss, and asked, "You really want to marry me?"

"Of course I want to marry you." Derek kissed her passionately. "More than anything."

"We're getting married," Meredith stated, more tears leaking from her eyes.

"Yes we are." Derek kissed the tears from her face.

Meredith unhooked one arm from her shoulder, and brought her hand in front of her face to admire the ring. It was a sizable princess cut diamond surrounded by a circle of tiny diamonds, and set on a platinum band. Definitely the most gorgeous ring Meredith had ever seen.

"Do you like it?" Derek asked.

"I love it." Meredith stared at the ring for another moment, before tangling her hands in Derek's hair. "I love you," she sighed, before kissing him deeply.

"You know what I've always wanted to do?" Meredith asked, her lips centimeters from Derek's and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"What?"

"Have sex on a ferryboat," she whispered.

Derek laughed aloud, and over her head, gestured for the waiter to leave them. "We can do that. This would be a perfect time to do that."

"Yeah."

Looking around them, Derek asked, "So what do you think? Table, wall, floor?"

"Um . . ." Meredith looked around the boat herself. "How about railing?"

"I can do railing." Derek scooped her up in his arms, her legs wrapping around him, and carried her to the railing. "Railing are good," Derek affirmed as he braced her against it, reaching behind her neck to tug on the fabric and untie the knot so the dress would fall forward, revealing her flawless breasts.

Meredith giggled, tugging his suit jacket off, and quickly attacking the buttons of his shirt, pulling when it wouldn't come off fast enough. There was a popping sound, and buttons went flying, scattering along the deck of the boat, and rolling into the dark water behind them.

"I liked that shirt," Derek whispered, nipping at her neck, but not at all angry as the loss of the shirt allowed her to run cool fingers up and down his chest.

Instead of responding, Meredith went to work on his pants, pushing them and his boxers down in one go.

"Der-rek," she whined when his hands were still on her breasts instead of where she wanted them.

Derek groaned as she rubbed herself against him through the silky fabric of her dress. His hands quickly left her nipples, and pushed the skirt of her dress up around her waist, ripping her panties off.

"Revenge for the shirt?" Meredith asked breathlessly.

"Just couldn't wait," Derek responded, accenting this by entering her with a quick thrust.

Moaning loudly, Meredith arched her back, bringing herself closer as her legs tightened around his waist. "Harder, Derek. Harder," she ordered.

Grunting, Derek obeyed, thrusting into her in fast, deep strokes, causing her back to dig into the railing.

"Derek!" she screamed as her body began to tighten. "Derek!" Her voice was intensified by the water behind them, and her screams seemed the echo around the boat.

They moved together, closer and closer to ecstasy, the only sounds their heavy breathing, the sloshing of water against the boat, and Meredith's occasional screams. Finally, they came together, Meredith shrieking his name, and Derek moaning hers deep in his throat.

Derek recovered his breath, resting his head against Meredith's sweaty neck. When they both could somewhat breath, Derek pulled out of her, letting her slide down the railing to the deck.

"I think I like being engaged," Meredith gasped.

"Me too," Derek laughed. "I love being engaged to you."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"I had a speech planned," Derek admitted, once they had dressed as well as possible and the waiter, who would no longer meet their eyes, had returned to clear the barely touched fish and serve them dessert.

"The lack of speech was perfect," Meredith sighed reflectively, as she took a bite of her raspberry cheesecake. "It's all perfect." She caught sight of the diamond on her finger sparkling in the candlelight. "Perfect."

"I like that word better than fine," Derek teased.

"I do too," she said quite seriously.

Their eyes meet for a long moment, and they communicated in a way that had never required words. The moment was broken only by the soft jolt of the ferryboat hitting the dock.

"Ready to go?" Derek asked softly.

"Yep. Is there going to be more sex at home?" she questioned out of the blue.

"Definitely."

"Good."

Shaking his head good-naturedly, Derek lifted Meredith again to carry her to the car, tucking her carefully into the passenger seat. The ride home was silent, but it was a good silence as they held hands and thought similar thoughts about forever.

**Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but the last week was almost more stressful than the school year for a variety of reasons. And more bad news. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a two and a half week trip to Europe with my cousin, so I wouldn't be updating. But the good news is that I will hopefully get a chance to write a lot while I'm gone, so when I get back, I'll quickly type them and have lots of updates by July 8.**

**Please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

Derek woke up, feeling almost more exhausted than when he fell asleep. The reason for his exhaustion moaned beside him, rolling away to turn off the alarm. Cursing the red numbers proclaiming 5:30 am, Derek threw an arm around her and snuggled her naked body close once again.

"Go back to sleep," he muttered. "Chief says we don't have to be in until nine."

"We can't do that," Meredith protested half-heartedly.

"Do you have any surgeries before that?"

"Well . . . no," she admitted.

Derek buried his face in her soft neck. "Then it's fine."

Meredith was tired enough not to argue, and spooned into Derek, closing her eyes. Their celebration last night had lasted on and off all night, resulting in about two hours of sleep for each of them.

Derek was almost asleep when Meredith whispered, "We're engaged."

He smiled even through his exhaustion. "We are."

The conversation ended at that point, and with content smiles, they both drifted off until they were dozing lightly. The tranquility was broken by the sound of tiny feet pattering down the hallway.

"Did she get out of her crib again?" Meredith groaned, waking up enough to sit up and reach for their robes from the chair by the bed, slipping hers on, and tossing the other at Derek.

There was some fumbling as Katherine worked on the handle of the door and then a click as it opened into the room. Opening doors was Katherine's newest trick, and not necessarily a great one in her parent's minds.

"Morning," Katherine exclaimed, running over to the bed and attempting to climb up.

Finally, Meredith took pity on her, and reached over to lift her onto the bed. Katherine climbed up and settled into her spot right between for, reserved for lazy mornings when one or both of them had the day off.

"Daddy, Daddy." She poked at the eyelids of Derek's closed eyes and he grunted.

"Katherine, sweetie." Meredith lay back down beside her daughter and fiancé, and pulled Katherine's hands from Derek's face. "Leave Daddy alone. We don't have to go to the hospital until later, so let's sleep a little longer. Mommy and Daddy are tired."

"Mama tired?"

"Yes, Mama's very tired." Meredith closed her eyes to emphasize her point.

"Go night-night?" Katherine questioned, with a confused frown.

Meredith opened her eyes to adjust the little girl, laying her down and rubbing her back. "Yes, night-night time."

Katherine was still groggy enough to be compliant, and closed her eyes quickly, her breathing evening out.

"I wanted to snuggle you," Derek complained in a low voice, once he was sure Katherine had fallen asleep. When she heard her daddy's voice, she tended to think it was playtime.

"Too bad we have a baby," Meredith giggled.

"No, it's not too bad," Derek disagreed, taking a long look at the dark-haired, sleeping toddler between them.

"It isn't," Meredith agreed with a content sigh.

Making the best of the situation, Derek shifted so he could reach across Katherine and stroke Meredith's hair and back as they fell asleep once again.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG

Two hours later, Meredith woke up to a high-pitched voice.

"Mama, mama, morning."

Meredith rubbed sleep out of her eyes between opening them, feeling only slightly between than she had felt two hours ago. Her eyes were met by Derek looking down at her, with a ridiculous grin on his face, and Katherine crawling out of his arms and towards her.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I'd let you sleep, but it's 8:00," Derek told her regretfully, reaching out to brush back her bangs.

"'Tis okay," Meredith mumbled, sitting up and swinging her legs out of bed, pulling her robe tighter around herself. "I'm gonna shower."

Derek groaned softly. "You have no idea how much I want to come with you."

Giggling, Meredith ruffled his hair playfully. "You'll live."

He caught her hand and kissed it just below were the ring rested on her fourth finger. "I love you so much."

"I love you too."

Derek pulled her into his arms quickly, kissing her deeply before letting her go shower.

When the family was clean and dressed, they rushed to the car, the bliss of Derek and Meredith making them even more late. The excess of long kisses, stolen looks, and teasing had really added a lot of time to their morning routine.

"The Chief lets me come in two hours late and I still can't make it on time," Meredith joked.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll be punished," Derek laughed, smirking as he thought of all the ways he could 'punish' Meredith.

She blushed and hit his arm lightly. "Katherine's right here," she reprimanded.

"She doesn't know what I mean." Derek looked in the rearview mirror at Katherine in her car seat. "Right, Katherine?"

"Right, Daddy," Katherine immediately responded.

"Did you teach her that?" Meredith snorted.

"Of course not." Derek raised his eyebrows at Meredith. "She's just smart."

"Uh-hu."

"Ferryboats or road?" Derek asked when they got to the point where they had to turn off for the ferries.

"Ferryboats!" Katherine shrieked.

"There's not time for that," Meredith protested. "We're late already."

"Then no reason to rush in. Your first surgery's at eleven, right?" Derek reasoned.

"Yeah, but I'm suppose to be there."

"Everyone will be fine with it when they hear the news. And the ferries are really only about ten minutes longer. At this point, that basically nothing," Derek tempted.

"Fine, ferryboats," Meredith gave in. "Just don't fire me."

Derek laughed and reached for her hand as he turned towards the ferries.

"Ferryboats," Katherine giggled excitedly as Derek pulled the car on the boat.

"You'd never guess she does this twice a week." Meredith giggled herself, opening the backseat door to get Katherine out of her car seat.

They each took one of Katherine's hands and swung her between them occasionally as they walked to the main deck. Meredith lifted Katherine into her arms when they got to the railing so she could see over. Derek put an arm around her shoulder and Meredith automatically leaned into it.

"Little different than last night, isn't it," Derek whispered into her ear.

"Yeah," Meredith sighed. "Was last night even real?"

"It was definitely real. Especially the part when we were just about here. That was definitely real." He chuckled softly in remembrance of his sex-on-a-ferryboat experience. It certainly made his thing for ferryboats grow stronger.

Meredith laughed too, and Derek kissed her quickly before they were distracted by Katherine who was pointing out every seagull they saw and exclaiming, "bird!"

"That is a bird, princess," Derek told her, taking her from Meredith's arms. "That bird is called a seagull. And do you see that one over there? That's a pelican. They like to live by the water so they can eat fish."

"Eat fish?" Katherine repeated.

"They do," Meredith jumped in. "Just like you and mommy and daddy when daddy catches fish."

"Fish, fish," Katherine giggled.

"You like fish, don't you?" Derek ran a finger down her cheek.

Meredith leaned against Derek as they chatted with their talkative two year old. Too soon the docks were in sights and they had to get back in the car to drive to a perfectly normal day at work. It seemed unreal that after the night before they would just go back to their everyday lives.

After dropping Katherine off at daycare, Derek and Meredith found themselves in a hot and heavy makeout session of the empty elevator. They both knew though that they were too late to stop the elevator and take it further because they were already arriving for their seven o'clock shifts at nine thirty.

They separated when the elevator stopped at the surgical floor, taking a moment to straighten hair and clothing before the doors opened. Their secret smiles at each other were interrupted by an angry looking woman with her hands on her hips.

"You think that now that you Chief, you can came in whenever the hell you please," Bailey informed Derek. "Well let me set you straight. This is you damn job and you had better do it right. That means showing up. I have a kid and I am here." She then turned to Meredith. "And you are just as bad. Letting him talk you into this . . ."

Meredith looked rightfully apologetic, while Derek just grinned at Bailey.

"Miranda." He flashed her a version of the McDreamy smile. "Guess who agreed to marry me last night."

Bailey visibly softened and Meredith hid her smile at her former boss's soft side.

"You lucky a nice girl agreed to marry an arrogant ass like you," Bailey scoffed.

Derek smiled adoringly at Meredith. "I am very lucky." He gave Meredith a quick kiss, much more professional than the ones they had shared on the elevation. "See you, fiancé."

Blushing at his use of the word, Meredith returned the sentiment.

"Well, congratulations," Bailey told her once Derek was out of earshot. "Can I see the ring?"

Still flushed with the newness of it all, Meredith held out her left hand for inspection.

"Beautiful," Bailey professed after peering at the ring. Then her tone changed completely. "Now get to work."

Meredith turned to obey, but was stopped by another person who looked less than thrilled with her.

"You told Bailey you were getting married before you told me?"

_Oh shit._

**So I'm back from Europe and the good news for you guys is that I actually wrote some while I was there (which is really amazing considering I barely had time to sleep) and I have another chapter of this that just needs to be typed and a new story of which the first chapter should be up within the next couple of hours, given that I'm not distracted. **

**All in all, Europe was tons of fun. My 'responsible adult' was only three years older than me, and I definitely took advantage of the fact that the drinking age is younger there than in the States (but not too much, honestly, we were pretty darn good for two irresponsible girls running around Europe). So yeah, long trip, tons of fun, no major problems, but it's good to be back. I'm super excited for internet again. Oh, technology.**

**Please review so I'm inspired not to be lazy and catch up on sleep. Which is what I've been doing since I got home.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Cristina . . ." Meredith sighed, unsure of what to say.

"No." Cristina's eyes flashed. "Don't give me any of that apology crap, Meredith."

"I was going to tell you next," Meredith defended.

"Okay." Cristina dropped the argument and turned to walk away, clearly pissed off.

Meredith chased after her. "Cristina, wait. I am sorry, okay. But she was just there and Derek told her, actually. We were late and it's a good excuse."

"Oh." Cristina spun around. "So the fact that you got an orgasm marathon last night makes this better?"

Cringing, Meredith knew better than to respond. Still keeping pace with Cristina's angry speed walking, Meredith searched her brain for a way to make this better.

"Piss off, Meredith," Cristina muttered.

Suddenly, Meredith was really angry. "You know, a congratulations would have been nice," she hissed.

"So I'm just supposed to be all okay with this? I told you first, Meredith. I didn't tell anyone and Burke didn't tell anyone. Not until you knew. You're my fucking person." Cristina's low tone was hardly appropriate for a hallway full of doctors and patients.

"Just because you told me first doesn't mean I have to tell you." Meredith responded in the same tone.

"Whatever. Stop talking to me."

"So I shouldn't show you the ring? Or ask you to be my maid of honor? You suck as a friend sometimes."

"Meredith, go away." Cristina ducked into a patient's room, effectively ending the conversation.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Hey fiancé." Derek grabbed Meredith's arm as she passed him in the hallway.

The smile she gave him didn't quite reach her eyes, and he noticed right away.

"What's wrong, Mer?"

She tried to smile again. "I'm fine."

"Of course you are." He rolled his eyes, and, with a gentle hand on her shoulder, walked her into the nearest on-call room.

Once they were inside, he asked her again, "What's wrong? Did something happen with a patient?"

"No." She shook her head. "What makes you think something is wrong?"

Derek sighed. "Meredith, last time I saw you, you couldn't stop smiling. Now you look like someone shot your dog."

Sighing herself, Meredith said, "It's not my dog."

"Then what is it? Please don't shut me out," he begged.

"I don't want you to think I'm not happy. Because I am happy. Really happy," she began.

Derek rubbed her cheek with his fingers. "That's good. I'm really happy too."

"Yeah?" She smiled for real and kissed him quickly, before finally explaining, "It's Cristina."

Derek winced. That could be bad. He knew Meredith's best friend could be brutally honest sometimes, and in this situation he could not see that being a good trait.

"What'd she say?" he sighed.

"Oh, it's nothing like that," Meredith assured him. "I think she's happy for us. She's just mad because she heard me talking to Bailey."

Derek finally understood. "She wanted to hear it first? And probably directly from you?"

"Yes, I think she's insulted, though she'd never admit that. Anyway, we kind of had a hallway shouting match and now I think we're not speaking," she rambled.

Crossing the distance between them, Derek hugged her close, whispering, "I'm so sorry, Mer. I know you hate fighting with her. Especially over something like this. I don't want this engagement to be anything but happy for you."

Meredith pulled away enough to look up at him and run her fingers through his hair. "It's only happy. And it's me and Cristina. We'll get over this." She wished she could really feel as reassured as she sounded.

Derek picked up on the doubt in her voice and squeezed her against him again. "You two will be fine."

_And she'll be hearing from me,_ he thought. As much as he liked Cristina, right now all he could feel was anger towards the woman who had dulled his fiancé's happiness.

"I think I need to forget about all this," Meredith declared, looking up at him with a naughty smile.

Instantly catching her implication, Derek laughed. "I'm definitely with you on that one. Now we just need a good way to forget."

"Hmm," Meredith pondered. "What could we possibly do?"

Laughing again at her adorable act, Derek scooped her up, only to toss her lightly onto the bed, climbing right on top of her.

"Oh, does my fiancé have some idea?" Meredith giggled.

Derek growled lightly in response, lifting her shirt up to just under her breasts and focusing his attention on her stomach.

"Maybe licking your belly will help," he hypothesized. "Does this make you forget, Mer?"

"No . . ." She giggled at the ticklish sensation of his tongue and lips on her stomach. Lifting her own shirt higher, she suggested, "Lick my breasts."

"The forgetful girl is bossy," Derek observed, bringing the shirt over her head, and snapping her bra off before obeying her request.

"Umm," she moaned. "Forgetting." She pulled his shirt off.

"Are you?" Derek abandoned her breasts to work her pants over her hips and completely off, puling the panties off in the same go. Settling himself between her legs, he asked, "What about here? What do you remember now?"

Soft shrieks escaped her as his tongue went to work. "Nothing, Derek, nothing!"

"You forgot nothing, that's a problem," he teased.

She groaned loudly in protest when he pulled his mouth from her to speak. Bucking her hips, she shoved herself towards him.

"I forgot," she moaned. "Forgot everything."

Derek was enjoying this game very much and he teased her a little longer.

"So my task is complete. Then you're okay with me stopping now, right?"

Unable to formulate a response and return the banter, Meredith responded nonverbally and twisted underneath him. The moaning was funny, but Derek had had enough of torturing her. He wanted to make her scream.

"You have a choice now, my beautiful forgetter. You can forget by tongue, or something else." He untied his pants suggestively. "What will it be?"

Meredith went with the nonverbal response again, pulling down his pants and boxers, and grabbing him by his lower back to shove him towards her. These were the moments when it was so good she was on the pill. There was no way they'd be bothering with a condom now.

Derek steadied her hips so he could enter her, knowing she was more than ready for him.

"Derek! Derek!" she shrieked as he pushed himself into her.

He placed a finger over her lips. "Shh, Mer, you have to be quiet."

The little moans and shrieks didn't stop though. The pace was slow and gentle at first and Meredith reached her first peak within minutes. The sensations transformed her into a trembling, screaming body that clung harder to Derek, digging her nails into his back. Derek sucked hard on her collarbone in response, neither of them at a point where they could care that Meredith could most certainly be heard in the hallway.

Once she had regained some consciousness, Meredith flipped them, so she was on top and could set the pace herself. Unable to keep the slow, controlled pace from before, it quickly increased and their hips grinded together with each of her movements.

"God, Mer," Derek groaned, looking up at the perfect woman on top of him. "Meredith."

She smiled briefly at him, before her mouth opened in a scream loud enough for Derek to think to put a hand over her mouth.

"Too loud, Mer," he grunted, though he couldn't help but be pleased that she was enjoying this that much.

"Derek!" she screamed, biting at his fingers on her mouth as another orgasm took her.

Letting himself finish with her this time, Derek removed the hand from her mouth to grip her waist and thrust deeply into her one more time before releasing inside of her.

Still shaky, Meredith laid her head on his sweaty chest. Derek slipped out of her, before wrapping his arms around her and holding her right where she was.

"We were so loud, Derek," Meredith giggled after a minute. "I'm embarrassed to leave this room."

Smirking, Derek responded, "I wasn't that loud, sweetheart. It was pretty much you screaming your lungs out."

"Oh God," she moaned, burying her face in his neck. "The nurses station is right outside."

"Yep," Derek laughed. "Don't worry, we can just tell them you attacked me. They'll believe it."

He showed her the teeth marks on his hand and where her nails had left angry red lines down his back.

"Oh Derek," she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" She ran tender fingers over his back.

"I'll live." He smiled at her beautiful face, twisting his fingers into her messy hair.

"I love you, Derek."

"I love you too, Mer." He touched the ring on her finger once again. "I can't get over that you agreed to marry me."

"And I can't believe you asked," Meredith responded with a soft smile.

"Well, we'd better get used to it," Derek said, caressing her ring finger.

"We'd better."

They lay nestled together for the next few minutes until Derek shifted her off of him.

"We have to get back to work, love," he whispered, teasing fingers through her soft hair. "But I'd lay with you all day if I could."

"I wish we could," Meredith groaned. "I'd have sex a few more times."

That made Derek laugh. "Just wait until the honeymoon, Mer. Then that's all we'll do. Lay around and have sex."

Meredith sat up suddenly. "We have to plan a wedding! Like order invitations, flowers, cake, food. I need a dress. Other people need dresses. Katherine needs one . . ."

"Shh," Derek pulled her back down. "Relax, Meredith. We have time. We haven't even picked a date. We'll go to dinner later this week and talk about all of this, okay. For now, don't worry."

"Okay . . ." She let her body relax into him once again. "Okay."

"Good. But now we really have to get up."

This time, Derek actually got out of bed, reaching down to pull Meredith up after him. They eventually managed to get their clothes on, after a few too many wandering hands had to be batted away.

"Ready?" Derek asked, his hand on the door handle.

"No," Meredith giggled. "You have sex hair." She reached up to fix it.

"You do too." He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her deeply.

"Somehow, I don't think that helped," Meredith commented.

Once Meredith had straightened her own hair, they opened the door and stepped out of the on call room together. There was no point in leaving separately. The nurse's had eagle eyes and would have watched even of them leave anyways. And moreover any fool would realize that there had been more than one person in the on call room.

After suffering an evil glare from Debbie and a quiet catcall from Tyler, they parted ways, each off to care for their own patients, knowing that their sex life would be a topic of hospital gossip for the next week.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Cristina!" Meredith jogged a few steps to catch up with her in the hallway that evening. "Cristina, I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry, I should have made sure you heard it from me and I . . ."

Cristina cut off her. "Meredith, when have we ever done this? Whatever, okay."

"Okay." Meredith tried not to smirk, knowing that somehow she had just made up with her best friend.

"Congratulations, Meredith," Cristina said sincerely. "Let's see the rock."

Holding her left hand out for examination, Meredith blushed slightly when Cristina's eyes widened.

"Shit, Mer, it is a rock."

"It's not that big." Meredith examined her diamond for the hundredth time. "Well, okay, it sort of is, but whatever."

Cristina laughed. "We already knew McDreamy was loaded."

Meredith shrugged. It was true. One of the many perks of being a surgeon. Or better yet, chief of surgery.

"Meredith," Cristina said, "I'm your maid of honor, okay?"

Grinning, Meredith turned towards her. "Really?"

"I'm your person, who else would do it?" Cristina somehow managed to come off as sincere even through her off-handed tone.

"You know this calls for hugging, right?" Meredith asked.

"Two seconds."

Bubbling with happiness and laughter, Meredith hugged Cristina briefly and for the first time since Derek had placed the ring on her finger, it felt like this was really happening.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

When Derek finally got the chance to hunt down Cristina and yell at her for upsetting Meredith, he found the two women together at the nurse's station. They were drinking coffee and laughing, acting as if they had never fought in their life, let alone an hour before.

Shaking his head at how quickly that had passed, he watched Meredith's beautiful face fill with so much joy, before heading to check the OR board.

**So an extra chapter to make up for the super long wait. Thanks to those of you who keep sticking with me. **

**Please review.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Did you guys set a date yet?" Izzie questioned enthusiastically as Meredith walked into the locker room.

She rolled her eyes. Izzie had been asking this question every day for the past week since she found out about the engagement.

"They did, Barbie," Cristina said. "Now shut up about the wedding."

Izzie attention had moved from Meredith to Cristina. "How do you know that? You don't even care about this kind of stuff."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "I care because it's Meredith. And a babysat the kid while she and McDreamy were going at it."

Meredith took her turn to roll her eyes. "We were discussing the wedding."

"Right." Cristina nodded sarcastically. "More like practicing for the wedding night."

"Oh, shut up," Meredith snapped, though she wasn't really angry. When she and Derek had gotten back from dinner they certainly had 'practiced' and it had been wonderful enough to leave her in a good mood, even when Cristina was teasing her at five in the morning.

"When's the wedding?" Izzie said with far more enthusiasm that anyone should be displaying before the sun was up.

"March 15th. A Saturday."

"That soon!" Izzie exclaimed. "We can't plan a wedding that fast."

"Soon?" Meredith frowned. "Izzie, that's over six months."

"Oh, Meredith, you are so naïve," Izzie giggled. "You need flowers, dresses, invitations, food, a cake, I could keep going. And six months? You need to book a photographer and a reception hall within the week. March, huh, rainiest month ever and we live in Seattle, so I'm going to assume an indoor wedding."

Meredith felt her face getting pale as Izzie went on about the wedding. She was mentioning so many things Meredith hadn't even considered yet.

"Indoors, so where then, Meredith?" Izzie asked insistently.

"Um, we don't know yet," she muttered, feeling her stress level rise.

"Well, you better decide soon. These places fill up fast. And what about the reception?"

"Umm . . ."

"Okay, Izzie, shut it. You're making _me _stressed," Cristina commanded. "And, Mer, don't worry, between Barbie and McDreamy everything will get taken care of."

"I guess," Meredith mumbled, fiddling with a string on her lab coat. It had all seemed so wonderful and exciting until Izzie had laid out exactly what needed to be accomplished within the next six months. An impossible amount of tasks. And decisions had to be made in the next week. How was that possible?

"Meredith, seriously, stop thinking about this and go cut someone open," Cristina ordered.

Izzie finished pulling on her lab coat. "Mer, I'm sorry for stressing you out. I'll help you plan this though, okay."

"You want to help plan," Meredith asked in shock. It sounded like the most stressful job in the world.

"Of course. It's going to be so much fun!"

"Right, fun," Meredith muttered.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Hey, little girl!" Meredith exclaimed as she took Katherine out of daycare during her lunch break. She liked to bring Katherine with her to the cafeteria on slower days such as this one.

"Mama!" Katherine giggled, wrapping her arms around Meredith's neck when she was settled on her hip.

"Come on, Riley, my man." Cristina had her son in her arms, and Meredith felt the impulse to giggle, as she always did when she saw Cristina with Riley. For someone who had claimed to hate kids, she sure did love her son.

"Ma – Ma – Ma." The one year old's babbling was just at the point where it actually did refer to specific things.

"Quit smirking, Mer," Cristina scoffed. "I'm am not soft. Hardcore cardio resident."

"Okay," Meredith agreed, still smirking as she readjusted Katherine on her hip. "You are getting so big, Katherine."

"Me big girl!"

"Yes, you are a big girl." Meredith kissed her cheek. "I love my big girl."

"Okay, that is sappy."

Giggling, they all made their way down to the cafeteria. The little ones had eaten in daycare, but Meredith and Cristina grabbed identical lunches of chicken salads and French fries.

It was a beautiful late summer afternoon, so Meredith and Cristina put their trays down at an outdoor table.

"Fry!" Katherine exclaimed as soon as Meredith settled her in the chair beside her, grabbing a fist full.

"Katherine," Meredith reprimanded her gently. "What do we say?"

"Peas?" Katherine gave Meredith a huge smile and showed the fries in her mouth.

"You better chew those, baby," Izzie laughed as she came and sat down in the empty chair between Katherine and Cristina, who was holding Riley.

"Not baby!" Katherine protested through a mouth full of potato.

"That's right. Sorry, big girl." Izzie turned to Riley. "Hi, Riley."

He squealed and held the French fry he was examining up for her inspection.

"Wow, all my favorite things at one table," Derek said as he came up to the group. "Meredith, Katherine, and French fries." He lifted Katherine up and sat down with her in his lap. He kissed the top of her head, before leaning over to brush Meredith's lips with his own and steal one of her fries.

"You equated me to a French fry." Meredith gave him an exaggerated pout.

"Oh, Mer, there is no comparison." He wrapped his hand around the back of her head, so he could pull her in for a long kiss. Letting her go he winked and said, "The French fry wins every time."

"As - ." She quickly glanced at Katherine and Riley. "Meanie."

He gasped. "A meanie? You called me a meanie?" His tone dripped with sarcasm.

Meredith picked up a fry and threw it at him, causing Riley to giggle loudly and throw the wet and mushy fry he had been chewing on at Meredith.

"Ew!" Meredith pulled the fry out of her hair, and frowned at it in disgust. "Don't even say it," she ordered when she saw the rest of the table hiding giggles.

"Karma," Izzie chirped. "But quit being cute for a minute and look at this." Izzie reached into her bag and pulled several papers out of a blue folder. "I looked into photographers and possible wedding and reception locations for you guys. Take a look at this and tell me soon because these things should be booked already. I need to look a little more into caters and a place to buy dresses, but that needs to be in order soon too."

Meredith felt her mouth fall open slightly as Izzie spoke. She had been 'wedding planer' for eight hours and already had this many new things to say.

"Okay . . ." Meredith took the paper and flipped through internet articles featuring smiling women in puffy white dresses.

"Izzie, what is this?" Cristina suddenly exclaimed. "Oh my god, I'm throwing up." Cristina grabbed the folder from Izzie's hands. "Look at this," she demanded.

Meredith understood what Cristina was talking about when see saw the words _Wedding: Meredith and McDreamy _written in loopy handwriting and surrounded by little drawing of bells, a tiered cake, a puffy dress, and a number of other objects she was unable to identify.

"City hall, Mer. City hall," Cristina recommended. "Save yourself from a Barbie wedding. And when I saw Barbie, I mean the doll."

Derek leaned over and whispered, "Eloping does sound kind of nice right now." He nipped at her earlobe before pulling away.

"Seriously you guys, am I the only one excited for this?" Izzie asked.

"Yep," Cristina quipped.

"I'm excited to be married," Meredith stated.

"Stevens, I'm excited," Derek smiled, taking the papers from Meredith's hands and scooting Katherine forward so he could look at them.

"You're just excited for the honeymoon." Cristina rolled her eyes.

Derek grinned. "That will be the best part of all this. Mer, does ten days sound good. I was thinking that would give us a travel day on each end and eight full, uninterrupted days of . . ." He mouthed the word _sex_ to her over Katherine head.

Meredith giggled, but then frowned. "That's a long time to leave our little girl."

"She'll be fine," Cristina interjected. "Burke and I will take her."

"Okay, then," Meredith agreed.

"Good, I'm totaling planning that. I have specific goals."

Cristina snorted. "I can think of about one."

Derek nodded with mock-seriousness. "That one is definitely the highest consideration."

"Alright then. It's great that you have that, Derek. So look through that and make some decisions," Izzie ordered.

"Will do." Derek stuck the papers in his laptop case just as Meredith, Izzie, and Cristina's pagers all went off simultaneously.

"What is this?" Izzie groaned.

Cristina's eyes were alight. "Hopefully surgery."

After a few moments of confusion, Derek found himself with a toddler on each knee as the three women ran off.

"Meredith, you owe me a kiss," he called after her.

Her giggled carried across the patio, and she turned and blew him a kiss, before jogging to back up.

"Well, Katherine and Riley, those women left us here all alone. How about we get some ice cream?" Derek suggested to the babies.

"Cream!" Katherine shrieked, and Riley clapped his hands upon seeing her excitement.

"Okay!" Derek held Riley in one arm, and took Katherine's hand to go buy the little one's a treat.

**I realize this is the most pointless fluff ever, but it's cute! And some things will happen in this fic. Well, basically it will be a couple more chapters leading up the wedding, a few on the week of the wedding and the wedding itself, and then some on the honeymoon! Fluff, fluff, fluff. **


	6. Chapter 6

"Here we are, Katherine," Meredith announced tiredly as she pulled into the parking lot of a small boutique. It had been less than a month since Izzie had become wedding planner, and she was already dragging Meredith and Cristina dress shopping. Meredith had been exhausted all week, and on her first day off all she really wanted to do was sleep. But here she was.

"Mama, out," Katherine whined when Meredith didn't move for a while. She tugged on the strap of her car-seat. "Out . . . peas."

"Sorry, sweetie." Meredith forced herself to stop thinking of her warm bed, and got out of Derek's car and went around to get Katherine out of the small backseat.

Katherine held Meredith's hand obediently as they walked into the boutique. Through the window she could see Izzie and Cristina sitting on an uncomfortable looking couch as she walked up, and she glanced at her watch, wondering how long she had kept them waiting.

"Hey, guys," Meredith greeted them when she got into the story.

"Crissy! Izz-zz-zy!" Katherine giggled, letting go of Meredith's hand to run to Cristina.

"Hey, kiddo," Cristina said to Katherine. "Thanks for making us wait, Mer."

"Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Izzie reassured her, receiving a hug from Katherine. "You're here now."

"Ahh, the bride has _finally _arrived." The tone gave only the subtlest hint of annoyance. The woman producing the voice instantly struck Meredith has someone she wouldn't like. Her hair was an obviously fake blond, and her smile was just as genuine as her hair. "Hello, I'm Megan." She struck out a hand that ended in long plastic nails to Meredith.

Meredith gave her a tight smile, and returned the handshake, trying not to laugh as Cristina made gagging faces behind Megan's head. "I'm Meredith."

"Right, then," Megan stated. "Let's get on this. What are you looking for?"

"Well . . ." Meredith hesitated. Wasn't it rather obvious? "I need a wedding dress and they need bridesmaid . . ."

"No, no, no," Megan cut in. "What specifically? Do you know what designer?"

"Umm . . . no."

"Then you must have a style in mind."

"Ahh . . . not puffy." Meredith was really at a loss. She hadn't thought too much into the dresses. All she knew was that she needed one. She had picked Izzie and Cristina as her bridesmaids so they needed dresses, and Katherine needed one to serve as the flower girl.

"So you came in here with no ideas whatsoever?" Megan asked in disbelief.

Izzie finally jumped in on Meredith's behalf. "I think she just needs to look at a few things to get a better idea."

Megan barely hid her annoyance. "Fine, let me take you back."

"Okay." Meredith reached down and picked up Katherine from where she was standing between Izzie and Cristina.

"Mama," Katherine whined. "Down."

"Katherine, no whining," Meredith scolded softly. "You can get down in a little while."

Katherine pouted, but wiggled excitedly in Meredith arms when she saw all the dresses. "Pitty! Mama, pitty ress."

"I see, Katherine. It is pretty."

Megan frowned at the exchange. "Does the baby need to be here?"

"Not baby!" Katherine demanded.

Ignoring Katherine's exclamation, Meredith locked eyes with Megan. "She needs a dress. She's the flower girl."

"Well, we're not going to be able to find something for her. She'll grow before the wedding. We don't fit children," Megan explained.

Izzie jumped in the conversation. "That's ridiculous. Let's just find her something that will give her room to grow, and get it altered before the wedding."

"Sorry," Megan said insincerely. "We don't fit children."

Izzie rolled her eyes. "Whatever, let's just start by finding something for Mer."

"Okay," Megan agreed. "The dressing room is right there. I'll bring a few things to try."

"What is this place?" Meredith hissed to Izzie as soon as Megan disappeared.

"It's the best place in the city," Izzie explained.

"Right," Cristina scoffed. "I think I'd prefer the worst."

"Let's just try, okay," Izzie insisted.

Their conversation ended when Megan came back with an armful of dresses. Meredith handed Katherine to Izzie before taking the dresses and bringing them into the dressing room, and putting the first one on.

"This is hideous," Meredith declared when she came out to show them.

"Yeah," Cristina agreed.

"No," Megan countered. "It's lovely."

"It is pretty," Izzie agreed. "But it's not you, Mer."

"Not at all." Meredith went back into the room to change into another.

"Mama!" Katherine cried when Meredith left. She squirmed in Izzie arms as she tried to get down and run to Meredith.

"Pumpkin, you have to stay here," Izzie explained. "Mama's putting on pretty dresses."

"Mama!" Katherine cried louder.

"Katherine, you're fine," Meredith told her from inside the dressing room.

"Here, Katherine." Cristina pulled a sucker from inside her purse and unwrapped it for Katherine who eagerly put it in her mouth.

"Are you bribing her?" Meredith asked when she came out with another dress on.

"It worked," Cristina justified.

Meredith rolled her eyes again. "This one is worse," she proclaimed tiredly. This was just not something she wanted to put up with. She was exhausted, Katherine was getting cranky, and she hated all these dresses. "I'm putting on the next one," she said, before they had a chance to critic what she was wearing. This needed to be finished as quickly as possible.

"Down," Katherine insisted when Meredith disappeared. "Down."

Izzie set Katherine down gently on the ground. "You have to stay right here, though, Katherine."

"Kay."

Izzie looked up from the little girl to turn to Cristina. "Do you think she will find something soon?"

"I pray she does. I was nauseous as soon as I walked in here. This place is disguising," Cristina responded, just quietly enough that Megan wouldn't be able to hear.

"Pitty!" Katherine exclaimed, drawing their attention towards her, and causing Megan to shriek loudly.

"No!" Megan yelled at Katherine, who was gently patting a dress with her fingers made sticky from the sucker. "Stop," she yelled.

Katherine looked up at her with wide eyes, the sucker she had in her hand dropping and falling to the floor.

"Don't touch," Megan yelled again.

Katherine's eyes widened even more, before she started sobbing loudly.

"What is going on?" Meredith demanded as she stepped out of the dressing room in yet another dress.

Cristina had reached Katherine by down, and had the sobbing little girl in her arms. "She's fine, Mer. She didn't do anything wrong."

"If she's fine then why is she crying? Why were you yelling at her?" Meredith hissed to Megan before she went over and took Katherine from Cristina.

"She was touching the dresses," Megan explained, not looking the least bit sorry.

"That's it!" Meredith finally snapped. "We're leaving. You can't accommodate my daughter, and your dresses suck!" Meredith gave Katherine back to Cristina and stomped back into the dressing room to change.

As soon as she was in her street clothes, Meredith came back out, and took her sleepy, sniffling daughter from Cristina. Katherine folded into Meredith's arms, and laid her head on her shoulder.

"Goodbye, Megan," Meredith hissed as she walked out of the store.

"Wow, Mer," Cristina complimented. "That was nice."

"Shut up," Meredith demanded. "I'm tired and pissed and I can't deal with you. I'll see you tomorrow. At work!"

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Katherine was asleep in her car seat almost before Meredith had gotten out of the parking lot. Meredith shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She was driving Derek's pride and joy today. He wasn't really a materialistic man, but he thought a nice car was one of the best things a person could have. She had taken it because the little Porsche was much easier to manipulate through the streets of downtown Seattle than her SUV.

Meredith glanced in the rearview mirror at Katherine. She looked so sweet with her curl faced face tilted to the side and her cheeks rosy with sleep. When the blue eyes that were so blatantly Derek were hidden it was easy to see that she was Addison's daughter as well. But when she was awake the hair, eyes, and smile took over her features, and she seemed to be a female clone of Derek.

"Little girl, you're doing what Mommy wants to be doing," Meredith muttered to herself as she focused back on the road, slowing down as she approached a red light.

She speed up again when the light turned green, accelerating the car a little faster than she should have in the congested downtown streets.

The car in front of her suddenly stopped. Meredith's reactions were slowed by tiredness, and she had hardly hit the brakes before she hit into the back of it with a sickening crash, crumbling the front end of the Porsche and crushing the back end of the equal sized car in front of her.

"Shit," Meredith muttered when her car engine turned off and Katherine started crying loudly in the back.

"Katherine, its okay," Meredith soothed as she looked around to judge whether or not she could get out of the car.

The car behind her had stopped, and she saw the driver of the car she had hit into get out. With another look over her shoulder, Meredith got out of her car, and jogged around the back of it to take Katherine out of the backseat.

"Mama!" she cried, clinging to Meredith.

"I know, sweetie. Do you have an owie?"

Katherine shook her head, and Meredith felt comfortably trusting her. The car had been designed to take most of the impact, and Meredith had hardly been jolted forward.

"Are you okay?" the older man from the other car asked as he came over to where Meredith was standing on the sidewalk.

"We're fine," Meredith answered, the sleepiness coming back now the adrenaline had worn off.

"People have got to watch were they are going," the man complained. "That woman didn't even look before she crossed the street in front of me. Not even in a crosswalk."

Meredith nodded in agreement when she heard the reason he had stopped so suddenly.

"I don't think she even realized she caused this. On her phone, of course," the man went on. "I've called the police to report this. And I think you'll need a tow-truck for your car."

Meredith looked at Derek's car. She knew next to nothing about cars, but even she could tell there was enough damage that she wouldn't be driving it away from here.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"I'll call for that too," he offered helpfully.

"That'd be great." Meredith could feel the now calm Katherine falling asleep in her arms, and she shifted the weight to balance her more evenly.

"Woah, is that a Porsche?" the man asked as he looked closely at her car.

"Yep. Derek is going to kill me," she realized aloud, the adrenaline coming back as she started to dread having to tell him what had happened to his car.


	7. Chapter 7

Meredith held a napping Katherine against her as she dialed Derek's number on her cell. The tow truck had driven her and the Porsche to the nearest auto shop, and while she didn't yet know the future of the car, she knew that she would need a ride.

_"Hey, Mer."_

"D-Derek," Meredith stuttered slightly. "Are you done for the day?"

_"Yeah, I'm just heading out the door."_

"Okay." Meredith talked quickly, hoping he wouldn't pick up on the nervousness in her voice. "Um, can you pick me up from that auto shop downtown off of 105th street?"

_"Sure, that's the one across from Mercy West, isn't it? What are you doing there?"_

"Ahh . . ." Meredith hesitated for a second. "Car trouble."

_"Is everything okay?"_

"Yeah. I'll see you soon." Meredith quickly hung up the phone. _I'm am such a coward_, she realized. It wasn't like this was something she could hide from Derek.

"Ms. Grey?" a mechanic coming out of the garage asked.

Meredith shifted Katherine more fully into her arms, and stood up. "Yes."

"I just got done looking over your car, the blue Porsche, right?"

"That's the one," Meredith confirmed.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "Well, I hate to say this, but it looks like it's totaled."

"What?" Meredith exclaimed loudly, dropping her voice as Katherine moaned in her sleep. "It can't be totaled. I wasn't going faster than thirty."

"That's the way these cars are designed today. They crumble easy, which takes the impact from the passengers," the man explained. "It's great for safety, but when things like this do happen you get extensive damage that it not easy to fix."

"Oh," Meredith whispered, feeling worse by the second. She had assumed the car would be fixable, but now this man was standing here telling her that would not be worth it.

The man was going on about the specific damage, and when she realized that she understood about half the words he was saying, she cut him off. "This isn't my car. And I have no idea what you are saying. Can you wait and talk to Derek?"

Looking a little shocked at her rushed and rude statement, the man nodded. Meredith was too tired and cranky to care that her response had been a bit brash.

She sat back down in the chair, and stroked Katherine's dark curls. "You are a lucky girl. I wish I could be sleeping through all this," Meredith whispered.

Katherine sniffed in her sleep, and burrowed her face into Meredith's shoulder. Meredith sat there, rubbing Katherine's back, trying not to let herself think about all of her problems. Work was intense as always, she had a wedding in five months, Katherine always needed her attention, and now she had crashed Derek's car. And she hadn't told him yet. _Maybe it would have been better to give in time to sink in._

Luckily, Meredith didn't have too much time to worry about everything. After she had been waiting for just a few minutes, Derek came into the shop, and walked over to her. Meredith stood up, and leaned in so he could kiss her.

"Hey, Mer. What's going on?"

"Oh, Derek." Meredith suddenly couldn't stop her tears. "I'm sorry," she sobbed quietly.

"Mer," he whispered. "What's wrong?" He hugged her as best as he could with Katherine in her arms. "Don't cry. It's fine."

Meredith pulled away from him and sniffed, hoisting Katherine up as her body slipped down. "It's not. I totaled it."

Frowning in confusion for a moment, Derek asked, "Wait, what happened?"

"I crashed it," Meredith whispered.

"Oh, well that's okay," Derek assured her. "As long as you and Katherine are fine. And that thing was old anyways; I wanted to get you a new one."

Meredith realized what he was thinking, that she had had her own car. She was hesitant to correct him.

The man who had spoken to her about the car came out from the backroom. "Oh, are you ready to get an estimate on the damage to the Porsche? I was telling your wife that it's pretty much going to end up totaled."

Derek's eyes widened slightly at the word Porsche. He turned to Meredith. "You had my car."

She nodded, wincing slightly. He was never going to speak to her again. The wedding was so off.

"My car," Derek repeated as he processed the information.

Meredith started to cry again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Derek burst into laughter. "You crashed the Porsche," he chortled. "Don't cry." He stopped laughing and wiped her tears. "It's just a car." He laughed again. "You should have seen your face; did you think I was going to call off the wedding or something?"

"Yes," Meredith whispered.

Derek's grin left his face. "Mer, I would never do that. Especially not over something like this. You should know that." He cupped her face in his hands and leaned over Katherine to kiss her. "I love you."

Meredith sniffed, and balanced Katherine in one arm so she could wipe her eyes. "I love you too. And I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Derek moved so he could kiss her again. "It happens. Go sit down and I'll take care of this."

Meredith nodded and went to sit back down in the chair, adjusting the still sleeping Katherine against her. It was amazing what the little girl could sleep through.

As soon as Derek finished talking to the mechanic and filling out some paperwork on the car, he came over to where she was sitting.

"Ready to go?"

"Yes," Meredith said softly, yawning deeply. She was just so tired today.

Derek laughed at the yawn, and reached down to help her up. "Let's go home."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Book! Book!" Katherine cried happily as Derek finished dressing her in her soft yellow pajamas. "Daddy, book!"

"Okay, Princess, we'll read a book. But let's go find Mommy first." Derek smiled as he lifted the little girl into his arms.

"Meredith," he called softly as he approached the door of her office. She had been studying in there for a surgery she was scrubbing in on the next day since dinner while Derek spent time playing with Katherine. "Meredith," he tried again when she didn't answer.

"Mama sleep!" Katherine giggled when Derek opened the door to revealed Meredith leaning forward to lay her head on a textbook, and clearly sleeping.

Smiling indulgently, Derek stepped in the room, and brushed her hair back from her cheek. "Meredith, wake up."

Moaning, she leaned into the hand he ran down her cheek, before opening her eyes, and sitting up. The action revealed a red mark from the book on her cheek, and she rubbed her eyes in confusion.

"Mama." Katherine reached out for Meredith, and Derek let her go to her.

"We just wanted to say good-night," Derek explained, kissing the top of Meredith's head.

"Thanks," she sighed, rubbing Katherine's head, before pulling her into a hug. "Good-night, Katherine. I love you."

"Yuv you, mama." Katherine leaned into the hug for a minute, before reaching her arms back up to Derek. "Book."

Derek scooped her up. "All right, Princess. I'll be back, Mer." He stroked his hand down her head, before carrying Katherine back into her room. When they got there, he set her down in front of her bookshelf. "Okay, pick one out."

Katherine frowned at the books for a moment. "This," she finally decided, handing Derek a Dr. Seuss book.

"Good, come here." Derek sat down in the rocking chair, and held out his arms for Katherine. She pattered over to him, holding the book in two hands, and climbed into his lap.

"Daddy," she mumbled, laying her head against his chest.

Derek leaned down to kiss her head, and opened the book to read the story. She was falling asleep in his arms once he had finished, but was still awake to demand a song. Derek reached up, and flipped off the light, so the dim light from the nightlight filled the room. Katherine settled against him, fisting his shirt in her hand, and fell asleep after only a few minutes of rocking.

"I love you, little princess," Derek whispered as he stood up, and carried her to her crib. He kissed her cheek and carefully laid her down, covering her with a light blanket.

Derek padded down the hallway to where Meredith was still studying. He pushed the door open all the way to reveal that she had fallen asleep again. Smiling at the picture she made, he walked over to her, and ran a hand down her back.

"Meredith. Mer, sweetie."

She opened her eyes, and looked up at him. "Did I fall asleep again?" she moaned as she sat up.

"You did." Derek knelt down beside her to hug her. "I think it's Meredith's bedtime."

She giggled half-heartedly. "No, I have to do this."

"Meredith, seriously, you'll do better tomorrow if you don't fall asleep over a body cavity," Derek reasoned. "And you're brilliant, you'll do fine."

Meredith groaned, and flipped through her book. "No I won't. I'm so bad at ortho," she complained.

"You'll be fine, but, Mer, you've been exhausted all week, and now you're falling asleep on your books. Let's go to bed."

Meredith shook her head, her hair falling in her face as she leaned forward to read the book again. "It's just after nine. I'll go to bed by eleven."

"No, no, no," Derek contradicted, speaking to her in a teasing voice. "Come on, Mer, bed."

Knowing that it was in her best interest, Derek stood so he could swoop her into his arms.

"Derek!" she cried, pounding her fist against his arm. "No! I'm studying."

"You're sleeping," he declared. "It will help you more." He transferred her weigh slightly so he could hold her more securely as he carried her squirming body down the hallway.

She pouted when he dropped her on the bed. "That was mean."

Derek braced his hands on the edge of the bed. "I only did it because I love you." He leaned his body forward, and kissed her deeply.

Meredith grabbed onto the front of his shirt, and pulled him toward her. The unexpected action caused Derek to fall forward and land on top of her. Meredith giggled softly, breaking the kiss for only a moment as he readjusted his weight, before entwining her fingers in his hair and forcing her tongue into his awaiting mouth.

"Hmm," Derek moaned, feeling her soft fingers run up and down his chest, under his shirt. "Mer." He pulled away to look down at her flushed face. "I thought you were tired."

She grinned up at him. "Second wind. Sex first, sleep later."

There was no way Derek was about to disagree with that. "Sounds good." He captured her lips in another kiss, losing himself in the sweet sensations of his Meredith.


	8. Chapter 8

Meredith was jolted from sleep by the blaring of the alarm clock. Derek groaned loudly beside her, reaching over her to turn it off.

"Ug," she moaned, burying her face in her pillow. For the past week she had been ridiculously tired, and getting up was the last thing she wanted to do. There were just too many things happening in her life.

"Tired?" Derek asked softly, as he reached over and stroked her messy hair, his hand coming to rest on her neck.

Meredith groaned again as a response.

Derek frowned in concern. "Are you okay, Mer? This has been going on for over a week now."

"Fine," she mumbled.

Unconvinced, Derek moved his hand to cup her cheek. He leaned in to kiss her softly, pressing their foreheads together when he pulled away. "You're really warm, Meredith," he observed, moving away to touch her forehead with the back of his hand. "I think you have a fever." Slipping a hand down the back of her shirt, he found that her body was definitely warmer than usual.

"Stop it!" Meredith snapped, jerking away. "I'm fine." With a huge effort, she climbed out of bed. "I'm showering."

The worried expression didn't leave him face as Derek watched Meredith drag herself into the bathroom. She had been absolutely exhausted for the past week and a half, even though he knew she was getting to bed by ten on nights when she wasn't on-call or working late. Derek was afraid that the stress of everything was literally making her sick. But she was so stubborn, and she refused to see a doctor.

Derek lay in bed for a while, keeping an ear opened for Katherine's voice as he laid there. After a while of dozing, he glanced at the clock. Meredith had been in the shower for over fifteen minutes. Usually she was much faster than that, and again Derek was concerned.

Getting out of bed, he walked to the adjoining bathroom, and knocked on the door. "Meredith!" he called, knocking louder so she could hear him over the shower.

When she didn't answer, he pushed the door opened. "Mer," he tried again, stepping more fully into the bathroom.

The frosty glass of the shower revealed Meredith sitting on the floor with her head tilted forward, and the water pounding on her back. Derek found himself frowning. It had been cute at first to see her asleep in random places like this, and, while it was still cute, it was now concerning since it had been going on so long.

"Meredith," Derek sighed softly, slipping his pajamas off before he opened the door to the shower, the warm mist hitting him before he submerged himself under the spray. He knelt down beside her on the floor, and touched her wet back. "Mer."

Her head lifted up slightly, and she tilted it to the side as she blinked at him in confusion. Derek ran his fingers through her wet hair, and softly kissed her temple.

"I wasn't sleeping," Meredith denied before Derek could speak.

"Okay," Derek agreed, though he knew it wasn't true. "I just worry about you."

He wasn't surprised when she once again insisted that she was fine. Derek copied Meredith when she stood from the floor, stroking a hand down her slick arm to hold her hand.

"No sex," Meredith whispered.

"No," Derek nodded. "You'd probably sleep right through it."

She cracked a slight smile. "I'm really fine. Tiredness is normal when you're a surgical resident."

"Hmm," Derek replied non-committed, turning her body gently, and tilting her head to saturate her hair. Grabbing the bottle of her lavender shampoo, he squeezed a dollop into his hand, and rubbed it into her locks, massaging her head as he worked up a nice foam.

Meredith moaned softly in appreciation, and Derek found himself growing slightly aroused at the combination of the sound, her naked body, and the scent that he so strongly associated with Meredith flooding his senses. Ignoring the feeling as best he could, he rinsed her hair until the water ran clear, and repeated the process with her conditioner.

When he was done with her hair, Meredith handed him a wash clothe and he squirted some flowery smelling soap onto it so he could wash her body. This had to be one of his favorite things to do, and it was one of the few times that his stubborn, independent wife let him care for her like this. Derek had to fight the strong response of his body as he ran the soft clothe all over her body until he position her under the showerhead so the running water could rinse her clean.

"Thank you," Meredith whispered when he had finished, smiling at him, though the exhaustion was not gone from her eyes.

"My pleasure," Derek responded, pulling her body into him so he could kiss her softly. Meredith opened her mouth to him, and their tongues rubbed together softly just as their wet bodies. Derek wrapped his arms completely around her, no longer able to control his arousal.

"I love you, Derek," Meredith sighed when she pulled away.

"I love you too," Derek smiled, kissing her softly before he let her step out of the shower.

As soon as she was gone, Derek looked down at what rubbing up against her naked body with her tongue in his mouth had done to him. With a sigh, he twisted the shower knob in the opposite direction, wincing as the cold water hit him.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Cristina, I need a favor," Meredith sighed when she got into work that morning. She and Cristina were changed and waiting outside the locker room for Bailey, the chief resident, to give them assignments.

"What kind of favor?" Cristina inquired, her frown showing that she wasn't going to let herself get roped into just anything.

Meredith bit her lip nervously. "I need an exam," she whispered.

"What are you pregnant?" Cristina exclaimed loudly.

"Shut up!" Meredith insisted. "No, I'm not pregnant, just sick or something."

Cristina looked a little concerned. "What kind of sick, Mer?"

"Nothing bad," Meredith assured her. "I've just been tired recently, I've had a sore throat, and Derek thinks I have a fever."

Cristina chuckled. "I suppose tired makes a good excuse for totaling a Porsche."

Groaning, Meredith said, "Cristina, shut up about that. It's not funny."

"I'm just surprised Derek didn't kill you. That thing was his baby." Cristina laughed again. Ever since she had heard about the accident it had become her favorite thing to tease Meredith about.

"What my baby?" Derek asked as he came up to the two of them.

"The Porsche," Cristina answered. "I'm surprised Mer is still alive."

Derek smiled down at Meredith. "No, the Porsche was a car. A really nice car, but a car. Meredith's my baby. And Katherine."

"God, McDreamy, I'm going to hurl," Cristina groaned.

"Me too," Meredith giggled. "Derek, that was pretty bad, even for you."

Derek chuckled. "I'm just glad you're not really vomiting." He pressed his hand to her forehead. "You definitely have a fever."

Meredith shoved his hand away. "Derek, I'm fine, remember."

"I remember, I just don't believe you." Derek was interrupted by his pager. "I've got to run," he told Meredith. "Take care of yourself." He kissed her quickly before running off.

"That man must be annoying to live with," Cristina observed. "He's happy, cheesy, and he hovers."

"Yep," Meredith agreed, smiling slightly because she knew there was no one she would rather live with.

"We'll do a blood test and a throat culture over lunch," Cristina told Meredith as she saw Bailey approaching.

"Thanks, Cris."

Bailey came up to them with her usual expression. "Quit standing around. Let's start saving lives."

**I know it's super short, but this was the fastest update for me in a long time. So that's good. I'm for sure updating Finding Faith this weekend, and this could possibly get another update depending on 3D life. We'll see. Who can guess what's wrong with Mer? Is she dying? Is she truly just tired/stressed? We'll see.**

**Please review. It might encourage another fast update.**


	9. Chapter 9

Cristina smirked as she walked into the exam room with Meredith's test results. "Guess what's wrong with you?"

Lying back onto the table, Meredith groaned, and rubbed her eyes. "Just tell me. You're smiling, so it can't be too bad."

"Well," Cristina started. "Have you been kissing any boys lately? Like, high school boys."

"What?" Meredith frowned in confusion. "No. What?" Her grogginess made it impossible for her to figure out Cristina's guessing games.

The smirk only growing, Cristina announced, "Mono, Mer. Which sucks."

"What?" Meredith exclaimed, sitting up. That had not been an expected answer. "I can't have mono. Where in the world would I have picked up mono?"

Cristina sniggered. "I have no idea. And that sucks. I had it when I was sixteen and I wasn't myself for a month."

"Bitch," Meredith muttered. "And I wouldn't gloat yet, we've probably shared a drink in the past couple weeks."

Cristina thought back. "I don't think so." Her smirk suddenly grew. "So McDreamy definitely has this then?"

Seeing a little humor in the situation, Meredith smiled. "Probably. I stick my tongue in his mouth almost everyday. That's salvia sharing if anything is."

"Gross!" Cristina exclaimed. "I do not need to hear things like that. God knows I have to see if everyday."

"This sucks so much," Meredith groaned, once she got over the fact that she had infected Derek. With all this stress and demands of her life, this was certainly the last thing she needed.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"There you are," Derek said as Meredith walked down the hall a little later in the day. "Come talk to me for a minute." He gently took her arm to guide her into an on-call room.

Derek leaned into kiss her once he had shut the door, but Meredith, remembering her infected salvia, turned her head away so his lips brushed across her cheek.

She could see Derek's eyes darken slightly in concern. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

Derek was not convinced. "Okay," he said doubtfully, before deciding to let it go for the moment. "I just wanted to check plans with you. Is it okay if we go to my mother's next week? I think that would be nice because then we could stay here and have a quiet Christmas with just us and Katherine."

Momentarily distracted from her disease, Meredith frowned at him in complete confusion. "Why would we go to your mother's next week?"

Derek raised his eyebrows at her in disbelief. "Thanksgiving? You know, the holiday when you're grateful and then you eat turkey."

"Thanksgiving is not next week," Meredith protested. "There is no way."

"Yeah, it is, and we're been completely putting off these plans with everything that's been going on lately. But we have to book tickets," Derek explained.

Meredith shook her head, unable to grasp that the holidays had crept up on her so fast. "Okay," she answered, not wanting to actually discuss anything.

"Great," Derek smiled. "Is that really okay with you? I thought it would be nice to have a smaller, quieter Christmas before we get really busy with wedding plans."

"Uh-hu," Meredith confirmed. "That's fine."

Derek looked at her with some concern. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Meredith raised her voice. "I'm fine, Derek."

"Okay," he agreed, running his hands up and down her arms in a soothing motion. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't love you."

Meredith rolled her eyes.

"Mer . . ." Derek stopped himself from pressing the issue. "Okay, you're fine."

He stopped his hands on her upper arms, and gently used that grip to pull her in close to him. He hugged her tightly in her arms, and Meredith found herself relaxing into his arms as he breathed in the smell of her hair. Derek pulled back slightly after a moment, but Meredith again turned away before he could kiss her lips.

"Meredith," Derek murmured, his lips against her cheek. "What's wrong? Why can't I kiss you?"

Meredith felt tears of frustration and exhaustion prickle her eyes. "Derek . . ." she managed to whisper before the tears came and choked out her voice.

"Hey, you're alright, I've got you," Derek murmured softly, pulling her before fully into him, and tenderly wiping the tears off her cheeks. "Shhh."

Derek wrapped his arms tightly around her, and sat down on the bed, keeping Meredith tight against his chest and settling her into his lap. He rocked her slightly, keeping her pressed close to him until the crying stopped.

"Can you tell me what going on?" he asked gently when she was calmer.

"I found out what's wrong with me," Meredith muttered against his chest.

Derek literally felt his heart skip a beat, and his stomach sank in fear. If she was crying like this it had to be something bad. He could barely choke out the word, "what?"

Meredith sniffed, and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I have mono," she whispered.

Relief swept over Derek, and he found himself laughing because of the weight lifted from him, and what he was beginning to realize was a humorous situation. "Oh, Mer, I'm so glad you're okay," he laughed, squeezing her tightly.

Anger flashed through Meredith's eyes, and Derek realized he had said the wrong thing. "I am not okay," Meredith said loudly, as she jerked out of his arms. "This sucks. I cannot have mono, Derek. I can't handle this." Her voice had raised to a shout by the end of her rant.

"Meredith," Derek said in a soothing voice. "It'll be okay. I'm just glad it's not life-threatening."

Meredith started to cry again. "I can't be sick. I don't have time."

Derek stood up to hug her. "I'll help you, Mer. I promise that we'll be just fine."

"You won't be help," Meredith cried. "You probably have it too!"

Derek paused for a second. A disease spread through saliva. Probably something that would be passed on to him. Suddenly, he was beginning to understand why Meredith was so upset. He didn't want to have mono; he didn't have time to sleep.

"Maybe I don't," Derek suggested. "I feel fine."

"Derek, think about it. How can you not have it?" Meredith pointed out.

"Crap," Derek said softly. "Who did you get mono from?"

Meredith shrugged. "I have no idea. You should get a blood test."

"Yeah," he agreed before gently taking her back into his arms, stroking strands of hair out of her face. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm tired," she complained. "And my throat hurt."

Derek gently felt her neck. "Your lymph nodes are huge! No wonder your throat hurts," he said sympathetically. "And you still have a fever." He put his hand on her forehead. "Do you want to go home?"

Meredith shook her head. "I can't. I'll need time off for the wedding and the honeymoon, and now Thanksgiving, and so I have to work."

"Hey, you're forgetting you are engaged to the Chief of Surgery. He definitely thinks you should have all that time off. And, Mer, you are going to have to rest to get better."

"I can work the rest of my shift," she protested.

"Okay," Derek agreed. "But I'm readjusting your schedule until you get better."

Meredith's pager then interrupted them. She glanced down at it. "I have to go."

Derek nodded, and pulled her towards him so he could kiss her lips.

"Derek," Meredith whined, pulling away. "I don't want you to get sick."

"Meredith, it's too late. We share too much saliva."

"Eww," Meredith laughed. "That sounds gross."

He kissed her again. "It's true. I'll book tickets for Thanksgiving."

"And get test for mono," she reminded him.

"And that."

**I'm dodging relatives which is the reason for the delay and the shortness. Please review anyways.**


	10. Chapter 10

Derek strode down the hallway of the surgical floor with a cheerful smile on his face. His life was good. In four months he was getting married to the love of his life, he was visiting his family in two days, and he had just found out that he did not have mono. It didn't get much better than this.

"What the hell is this?"

The angry voice of his fiancé pulled Derek from his cheerful mood. It sounded like he was in trouble, and Meredith was the person with whom he hated being in trouble the most.

"Meredith," Derek greeted in his sweetest voice. "Good morning, beautiful."

"Shut up," she dismissed with a roll of her eyes. "Explain this," she demanded with a dangerous flash in his eyes as she waved a piece of paper at him.

"What am I explaining?" Derek asked innocently as he took the paper, truly having no idea why she was mad at him.

_Resident Schedules: November 20-27_

"That's your schedule," Derek pointed out as he glanced at the paper. "You're listed right here. Meredith Grey. It'll be Meredith Shepard soon, you know."

"Derek," Meredith growled. "Look at my schedule. That's what you're explaining."

Derek looked over the hours he had scheduled for her that week, still not seeing a problem. "What, Mer?"

"Derek, I'm working twenty hours this week!" she cried. "The other residents are working over eighty. And I'm working twenty! Twenty, Derek, twenty! Explain that."

"Meredith," Derek sighed, pulling her into the office behind the nurse's station, and shutting the blinds.

"Don't Meredith me," she exclaimed as soon as he shut the door.

"Mer," he repeated calmly. "Look." He gestured to the schedule. "We're gone these three days. That's why you're working so much less."

She ripped the schedule from his grip and scanned over it. "No, it's not! I have another day off, and you put me in for two half days. Derek, I'm only putting in one full day this week! I'll be in my residency forever!"

Derek chuckled, earning himself a hard smack from Meredith. As he rubbed his shoulder, he said, "Meredith, you need to rest. You're sick. And you're not behind the other residents at all. I promise you'll finish with everyone else. And I can promise that."

"That's fucking favoritism, Derek! And I'm going to be behind. A ten day honeymoon? Yeah, that's going to put me beside a little," she ranted.

With a sigh, Derek quietly explained, "Mer, this is not going to put you behind. Surgeons do get sick days and vacation. And you're brilliant. You'll have no problem finishing up your residency."

"Fine," she grunted, folding the crinkled schedule and shoving it into her pocket.

"Mer." Derek caught her should as she turned to storm out of the room. "I'm sorry about this, but you do have to rest. Otherwise you're never going to get better."

"Are _you_ going to take time off to rest?" she mocked in an uncharacteristically nasty tone.

Derek shifted uncomfortably. Suddenly his good news was sounding not so good. "Um, about that. Idonthavemono," he mumbled quickly, avoiding eye contact.

Her eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

"I got the blood test," Derek explained. "And it came back negative. No mono."

"What?" Meredith screeched. "I have to suffer alone?"

Derek shook his head. "You won't be alone. I'll going to be here, and I'll take care of you."

"Dammit, Derek!" Meredith shrieked, lunging at him. "I'm going to infect you!"

It was one of the better attacks Derek had experienced as Meredith lunged towards him and latched on, fusing their lips together. Her tongue quickly wrestled its way into his mouth, and Derek securely gripped her thighs that were wrapped around his waist and backed her into the opposite wall. Keeping her firmly supported, Derek wrestled with her tongue, sucking in the sweetness of her.

Meredith moaned when they broke the kiss, her eyes soft. Derek kept her supported in his arms and leaned forward to kiss her softly. He brushed their lips together, and then feathered little kisses across her cheeks and nose, feeling her melt in his arms.

"I'm sorry I freaked out at you," Meredith sighed, resting her face against his neck.

Derek smiled, and braced her against the wall, so he could have a free hand to rub her back and neck. "I know. It's okay."

Wrapping his free hand tight around her once again, Derek kissed her deeply again, letting his tongue slip into her slightly open mouth. He could feel Meredith's hands tugging on his hair, and the action made him groan.

Derek let her slip to the floor when they broke the kiss, and he stroked wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail back behind her ears. He leaned into her again, but was interrupted by the obnoxious sound of his pager.

Pulling away from her, he glanced down at it. "I've got to go," he said reluctantly.

"Okay. I'll see you tonight."

"Yep." Derek leaned forward to kiss her lightly. "Oh, and, Mer, why don't you leave Katherine in daycare this afternoon so you can actually rest. I'll bring her home tonight."

"No," Meredith contradicted. "She'll be fine. She naps, and I don't want her in daycare all day."

Derek frowned. "I don't want her there either, but I need you to get better. Just think about it; see how you feel when you get off."

"Okay," Meredith agreed. "I love you."

"Love you, too," Derek responded, before running off.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Meredith smiled from the couch as she watched Katherine drop the toys she had been playing with and run across the living room to the garage door Derek was coming in.

"Katherine!" Derek swung her up in his arms. "What have you been up to?"

Katherine gave him a toothy grin. "Goed to park."

"You went to the park?" Derek asked enthusiastically. "Wow, what a lucky girl."

She erupted into giggles as Derek tickled her before setting her back down on the floor. Derek followed Katherine into the living room, and leaned over the back of the couch to kiss Meredith.

"Hey, Mer. It sounds like you had a busy afternoon."

She stretched her arms up and yawned. "Not too bad. We were only out for an hour, and then we napped."

"That's good." He smiled down at her. "Are you still mad?"

Meredith rolled her eyes. "I don't get why you don't have mono."

"Well, I'm told I have very high resistance to the disease. I was advised to stop kissing you, though."

"Hmm," Meredith sighed. "I'm glad you're not obeying."

"Me too." Derek cemented his proclamation with a long kiss to her lips.

"Daddy, Mama, kiss!" Katherine placed a dimpled hand on each of their cheeks as they pulled away. "Me kiss!"

"Kiss you?" Derek exclaimed, running around the couch to catch her. "I'll kiss you." He lifted her up and lightly kissed her cheek.

"Tickles!" she giggled loudly, rubbing her cheek where Derek's evening stubble had brushed against her.

Derek gently brushed their cheeks together, making Katherine shriek loudly. "Does that tickle?" he teased.

"No, daddy, no!" she demanded, pushing his face away.

"Someone is bossy," Meredith giggled as she watched the exchange.

"I wonder where she picked that up," Derek laughed, and then he turned to Katherine in his arms. "Do you want to help me make dinner?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, good, I need a helper. Anything you want in particular, Mer?"

"No, just whatever."

Derek chuckled. "I can do whatever. You rest while we cook. Come on, helper." He lifted Katherine high in the air, and tossed her up lightly, making her laugh loudly.

"Again, again, daddy!"

Derek tossed her again, and then turned her to lifted her up onto his shoulders and carry her into the kitchen.

"Faster, horsie!"

Meredith smiled as Katherine's high little voice drifted into the kitchen, far enough away that she only caught the loudest exclamations. She was such a happy little girl, though perhaps a little stubborn at times. Meredith was certain she would be a handful as she got older.

Her thoughts drifted from Katherine to the trip coming up. She hated to go visit Derek's family when she was sick, but this was better than waiting until Christmas when the hospital would be busier than ever and the wedding plans would be in full swing. Last year, they had gone to New York for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and she was glad it was only one time this year. All that family-time was quite draining.

One minute she was reflecting on Derek's family, and the next, she felt herself being gently shaken.

"Meredith, dinner." Derek squatted down in front of the couch so they faces were on the same level.

"Oh," she groaned, realizing how exhausted she was.

"Daddy, me hungry," Katherine whined, running into the room.

"Just a minute, princess." He ran a hand down Meredith's head. "Are you waking up or should I bring something to you later?"

"Later," Meredith decided, realizing that she did not have the energy to get up and sit at the table.

"Okay." Even through her grogginess she could hear the concern in his voice.

"I'm okay, Derek," she said, and at the time same, Katherine again cried, "Hungry, daddy."

"Good." Derek kissed her head, and she saw him usher Katherine out of the room as she shut her eyes.

Meredith could feel herself already falling asleep, and she remember again how much she hated being sick.

**So holiday season in this fic is coming after the real thing, but it will be brief as we transition into the wedding. Yay. And then the honeymoon. Which actually may become a separate little fic, but I'm not sure about that yet. Anyways, keep reading and keep reviewing. I'll update ASAP.**


	11. Chapter 11

"Daddy, we fly?" Katherine asked for what had to be the millionth time since takeoff two hours ago.

"That's right, princess. But about we take a little break right now, and sleep like mommy." He gestured to Meredith who was in the seat across the aisle from them, sound asleep as she had been since before takeoff. "You can sit with daddy to sleep."

"I no tired," Katherine insisted, wiggling around in her seat so she could kneel and press her face to the window. "Look cloud!"

Derek sighed, knowing how cranky she would be that evening if he couldn't get her to nap. The disadvantage of their first class seats was that only two of them could sit together, and Meredith on had only let him sit with Katherine on his promise that he would keep her calm and get her to sleep. They were all in trouble if he couldn't keep that promise.

"Daddy," Katherine sighed, sitting back in her seat after a long silence in her babbling. "Me belly hurt."

"Your belly hurts?" Derek clarified, frowning in concern. "Well, why don't you come here, and try to sleep."

A confused look crossed Katherine's face before she suddenly emptied the contents on her stomach onto her lap. Derek groaned quietly, finally a little nauseous himself as he listened to her gag.

"Katherine, you're okay, Katherine," he soothed quietly, ignoring the attention the awake passengers around them were giving him. He rubbed her back as she coughed for the last time.

"Daddy." Katherine looked up at him with the expression that always preceded tears.

Derek did damage control as quickly as possible. "Hey, it's okay. I bet your belly feels lots better. Let's just take off your shirt and it will be all better."

"All better?" Katherine whispered.

"Yep," Derek assured her. "You're okay, princess."

He hit the button that paged the flight attendant before carefully removing Katherine's shirt and using it to wipe her mouth before folding it so the vomit was on the inside.

"Brr." Katherine smiled and wrapped her arms around her body. "I cold."

"You're cold?" Derek asked as he pulled off her shoes and lifted her to a standing position so he could slip off her pants, leaving her in only a diaper.

"Belly no hurt," Katherine observed, her recovery obviously quite fast now that her body had rejected whatever had been upsetting it.

"Hmm," Derek murmured, feeling a little ill himself now. He blamed it on the smell, though it was a weak excuse considering he was around bodily fluids all day at work and it had never bothered him. Ignoring the feeling, Derek unbuckled his seatbelt, and stood up. He reached carefully under the seat in front of Meredith to retrieve the diaper bag, taking care not to jostle her. Once he had it, he softly touched her cheek, gentle enough not to disturb her.

"You needed assistance, sir?" a flight attendant asked as Derek sat back down in his seat.

"Yes," Derek looked up at her. "She was sick." He gestured to Katherine. "Can I get a glass of water, and something to put her clothes in?"

"Of course." The women quickly disappeared down the aisle.

Derek dug through the diaper bag, which had somehow come to double as Meredith's second purse, and he had to dig past diapers, a blanket, little toys, recites, lipstick, and tampons until he finally found Katherine leggings and a soft cotton dress.

"Okay, Katherine, here we go." Derek fought the sickness he was feeling himself as he efficiently dressed Katherine. He was not going to get sick on an airplane. "Let's sleep now," he told her once she was changed. He pulled the blanket from the diaper bag, and he laid the non-resistant little girl down on her seat.

The plane hit a small turbulent, and Derek suddenly groaned, unable to fit off the extreme wave of nausea that hit him. "I'll be right back," he told Katherine before jumping up from his seat and bolting to the bathroom not a moment too soon.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Ma'am."

Meredith woke to the sensation of someone prodding her shoulder, and as she came to awareness she realized where she was, and heard Katherine crying for her. With a huge sigh, Meredith opened her eyes, and looked up at the flight attendant who had woken her.

"I'm sorry to wake you," the woman apologized. "But it seems that you're traveling with that little girl."

"Yeah I am." Meredith looked over at Katherine who was clearly trying to get to her, but trapped by Derek's briefcase and the diaper bag. Katherine was crying quietly and wearing the hideous pink outfit given to her by one of the nurses on her second birthday. Meredith kept it in the diaper bag for emergency use only.

"Well, your . . ." the flight attendant paused for a second and looked down at Meredith's left hand. "Husband said she had been sick, but now he's gone. He asked for this though." The flight attendant handed her a glass of water and a plastic bag with the name of the airline across the front.

"Thanks," Meredith replied groggily, putting the items down and frowning in confusion as she tired to work out the situation.

Meredith stood up from her seat, and lifted Katherine into a hug. Katherine immediately wrapped her arms and legs around Meredith, setting down quickly, and laying her head on Meredith's shoulder.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Meredith asked.

"Belly no hurt." Katherine sighed tiredly.

"That's good. Where's daddy?" Meredith asked as she sat down in Derek's seat with Katherine on her lap, kicking the bags in front of her back underneath the seat.

"Runned away," Katherine explained, pointing her finger in the direction of the bathroom.

Hiding her confusion and mild concern, Meredith replied, "Okay. Do you want a drink of water before you go to sleep?"

"Water."

"Alright." Meredith reached across the aisle and took the water glass from her tray, and helped Katherine take a sip.

"Me sleep," Katherine decided after two sips.

Meredith smiled. If she was tired enough, naps were always her idea. It was a refreshing change from screaming in protest and resistance. Meredith laid Katherine down on her seat, lifting the armrest between the two seats so she could stretch out a little further, and covering her with the blanket. Katherine's eyes immediately drooped to close, and Meredith knew she would be asleep in moments.

"Go to sleep, Katherine," Meredith encouraged. "I'll be right back."

Katherine didn't even seem to notice that Meredith had stood up, and, though she felt bad about leaving Katherine, Meredith left the almost-sleeping baby so she could go to the bathroom a couple rows in front of them and check on Derek.

"Derek?" Meredith knocked softly on the door of the bathroom the claimed to be vacant. She pushed the door opened a little bit to find Derek kneeling on the floor and leaning over the toilet. "Der, are you okay?"

He groaned and spit into the toilet before looking up at her. "Not exactly, but I'll live. Where's Katherine?"

"Sleeping," Meredith explained as she stepped over the threshold of the door, letting it swing shut behind her as she entered the small space. "Was she sick too?"

"Yeah, but not like . . ." Derek's words were cut off as he leaned over the toilet and heaved.

Meredith winced, and awkwardly tired to get beside him, half-sitting on the tiny sink as she leaned down to rub his back. Derek finished after a minute, and pressed the button to flush the toilet, sitting back as the suctioning sound filled the cramped space. Meredith silently wet a paper towel for him, and watched as he wiped his mouth.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Yeah. So, do you think you have the flu or something?" she asked.

Derek moaned. "I'm really hoping it was something I ate. If Katherine and I have the flu and you already have mono, we're on the next flight back to Seattle."

Meredith frowned as she thought about the past day and a half. "Well, none of us have had flu symptoms until now . . . wait, what about that nasty egg thing you ate at the airport, the one with green crap it in."

Derek's face went slightly green. "Mer, that's what I've been looking at since got in here. Don't mention it."

"Oh sorry. But you did give Katherine some. It could be that," she reasoned.

"God I hope so. Oh shit." He leaned back over the toilet for a moment and heaved, though nothing came up.

"Derek," Meredith murmured as she rubbed his back. "Can I get you anything?"

He shook his head, his face still terribly pale. "No, I think I might be okay now. I just want to wait a minute in case."

"Okay. It will probably help to get out of here too."

"Yeah." Derek looked around the tiny bathroom, now overpowered by the scent of vomit. "You know, this is not why we're supposed to be in one of these bathrooms together."

Meredith laughed. "It's the only reason we're going to be in here together. I am so never going there again."

"Mer," Derek whined. "Every good honeymoon starts with some mile high experimenta – wait?" He suddenly processed what she had said beyond the refuse. "Again?"

"Like you haven't," Meredith said lightly.

"No I haven't." His eyes widened. "You have? When?"

Meredith giggled again. "Well, I guess that's why you want to. Trust me, Derek, it is not worth it."

"Mer, I need to hear about this." Derek looked up at her with pure curiosity.

"Well, I mean, look around. There is not room to maneuver at all . . ."

Derek interrupted. "You're very flexible."

Meredith rolled her eyes, and continued. "Still, it just doesn't work. It's messy and uncomfortable, and everyone totally knew we did it."

"Who's we, when was this?" Derek asked.

"In college, spring break. It was just some random guy, a friend of a friend thing, and the memories are not good. Actually the memories of the entire trip are not good," she reflected.

Derek took his turn to laugh weakly. "What else?"

"Well, I spent a lot of time doing what you're doing right now. Not on an airplane, but still not a good thing no matter where you are, and the rest was just bad and awkward."

"What kind of trouble did you get in?" Derek said with a smirk.

Meredith winced. "Tequila trouble. We were in Mexico, and there was lots of tequila. That just led to things. I'm not saying anything else."

"Hmm," Derek smiled. "I'll get it out of you sometime."

"I don't think so, Dr. Shepard," Meredith teased. "Are you ready to go back?"

Derek was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I think I'm good now. Let's go."

Meredith gave him her hands to help him stand in the tiny room. He bumped into her, squeezing her between the sink and his body, and they shifted and stumbled for a couple of seconds until Derek finally got the door opened, and guided Meredith out in front of him.

"That's why it doesn't work," Meredith whispered over her shoulder.

"I'm resourceful," Derek shot back, putting both of his hands on her hips as she walked in front of him to their seats.

They paused in front of the seat where Katherine was sleeping, Derek not moving his hands off Meredith. Katherine had shifted onto her back, and her lips were slightly opened, soft sighs emitting periodically. Meredith smiled down at her, and leaned over to adjust the soft purple blanket over her, running a hand through the dark and messy curls.

"I'll sit by her," Meredith offered.

"Shouldn't we quarantine the sickness?" Derek joked.

"We're hoping you guys aren't actually sick, remember?" Meredith laughed, turning in his arms to face him as they blocked the aisle.

"Right." Derek leaned in as if he was going to kiss her, but drew back. "Sorry, I'm gross right now."

"Yeah, I'm okay with you not kissing me." Meredith leaned into him, and kissed his check instead.

Derek let go of her, and Meredith sat down next to Katherine, fumbling for the button to put the seat back. Finally, it did, and with one smile at Derek across the aisle, she adjusted herself in the seat and closed her eyes.

**Review s'il vous plaît**


	12. Chapter 12

". . . and we are thankful for all the blessings that we've have throughout this year in health and family." He winked at Meredith at that statement. They had been blessed in the fact that Derek and Katherine had both quickly recovered after the sickness on the plane. "And we gives thanks to the newest members of our family, for little Greta, and for Meredith who has agreed to join this family officially, although she is certainly already part of this family, and has been from quite some time."

Derek paused for a moment in his prayer to glance at Meredith over Katherine's head and smile. She bit her lip and smiled back and Derek held her graze, before he concluded the prayer. "We pray that our blessings will continue into the coming year, and that You will be with us through all our trials. Bless You our Lord. Amen."

Around the table, the family repeated the word in a scattered unison before chaos broke loose. The kids had been gathered around the adult table for the prayer, but now they were expected to sit in the kitchen together, and getting them there always proved to be quite a process and never one that was hundred percent successful.

"Mommy, I want to sit _here_!" one of the nieces exclaimed as Derek's sister, Anna tried to bring her to the kid's table.

The others kids were just as loud and they ran around the dinning room table as the adults tried to get them into the kitchen to the table that was set up with their already filled plates.

"I'm not sitting with the babies," a nephew protected loudly over the noise.

"For one more year, Jake," Kathleen reasoned. "Now get your sister and go sit down."

"Ahhhhhh!" a little boy screamed as he ran around the table, whipping past where Derek and Meredith were sitting.

"Benjamin James, what are you thinking?" Nancy cried, intercepting him before he could start his second lap, and carrying him into the kitchen.

Katherine looked up at Meredith with wide eyes at all the noise. She hadn't seen her cousins since Derek had taken her to his mother's house during the summer, and that wasn't an experience that she could really remember. A couple hours with all the kids in the morning hadn't quite accustomed her to the madness.

"Okay, Katherine," Derek told her. "You're going to sit with all your cousins now. Remember when we put your food by Ben and Laura?"

Katherine nodded seriously, and held up her arms to be picked up. "Okay," she whispered.

"I'll take her," Meredith offered, lifting Katherine onto her hip and carrying her into the kitchen.

Some of the kids had been settled down, and a couple were already half done with their dinner. Meredith set Katherine done on the high stool next to Benjamin, who was now devouring mashed potatoes instead of running around the table.

"Here you go, little girl," Meredith told Katherine brightly. "Look, you have turkey, potatoes, peas, and bread. Be a good girl and eat your dinner. Come find me and Daddy if you need something."

"Don't worry, Aunt Meredith," the ten year old Laura assured her. "I'll take care of Katherine."

Meredith smiled at her. "Thank you." She leaned down over Katherine to push up the sleeves of her sweater, and kissed the top of her head. "Bye guys, have a good dinner."

Returning to the table, Meredith sat down between Derek and Anna, finding that Derek already had her plate half-full with the dishes that had been passed around while she was in the kitchen.

"Hey, Mer," he greeted, handing her a bowl of cranberries and kissing her lightly on the lips. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Oh, Der," Anna cut in. "She'll be fine."

"She will be," Meredith agreed. "Laura's going to watch her."

Anna laughed. "See, Derek."

Derek loaded his plate with a spoonful of peas, and scooped some onto Meredith's plate before passing the bowl over her to Anna.

"Hey," Meredith protested. "I didn't ask for those."

"They're good for you," Derek justified, bringing a hand to her cheek as he kissed her again.

Meredith captured a forkful of mashed potatoes and gravy. "I don't want vegetables. I want starch and fat." She brought the food to her mouth and made a noise of appreciation. "That is Thanksgiving dinner."

Derek tilted his head to the side and smiled at her. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Meredith gave him a soft look before attacking her meal with fervor.

The meal proceeded and the adults conversed, catching up on all the events since they had last seen each other. They were interrupted occasionally by kids running into the room with an array of problems and by screams from the kitchen that merited investigation by Nancy, who happened to have scored the seat closest to the kids.

Meredith's quiet conversation with Anna was interrupted by Greta, Anna's baby and the newest addition to the Shepard clan. The baby wailed softly from her car seat, which was placed against the wall behind where they were sitting.

Anna glanced back at the baby. "I think she just wants to be held. She's a sucker for attention. None of my others were like that."

"Can I?" Meredith asked, gesturing to the baby. The four hours that the sister's had been there had been so chaotic that Meredith hadn't gotten a chance to meet the little one that had been added to the family only six weeks ago.

"Will you?" Anna asked with a smile.

Meredith set her napkin down next to her nearly empty plate, and left her seat to go kneel next to the car seat.

"Hey, little baby," Meredith soothed. "Greta, don't cry."

She unbuckled the straps, freeing Greta from the seat, and carefully lifted her out. The Shepard-blue eyes that Derek and Katherine both possessed stared up at her and Meredith couldn't help but smile down at her soon-to-be niece cradled in her arms.

Anna had been correct in her assessment of her daughter and Greta stopped fussing as soon as she realized that she was being held. Meredith carried her over to the table, and sat back down.

"What do you have?" Derek asked, turning away from a conversation with one of his brother-in-laws to look at Meredith and the baby she had cuddled close.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Meredith looked up at him for only a moment before staring down at Greta again.

"She is." Derek reached across Meredith to catch the fingers of the hand that was partially free from the blanket Greta was swaddle in. The tiny fingers gripped his thumb tightly.

"Look how perfect she is," Meredith sighed, unwrapping the baby to admire her little pink outfit. She pulled off a sock, and cupped a flawless foot in her hand. "Look at this foot."

Derek wrapped his hand around Meredith's that cradled the foot. "Do you remember when ours was this tiny?"

"It was so long ago," Meredith sighed, pulling her hand from Derek and slipping the sock back on before re-swaddling the baby.

Meredith hugged Greta close and looked up at Derek. "Oh, Derek," she sighed. "I want another one."

"Really?" Derek asked with some surprise in his voice.

"Yeah. Not right now; after we get married," she explained. "But I want some more."

"Some?" Derek laughed. "Just a minute ago it was one, now it's some."

"Well, right now I want about eight, but one or two more, maybe three." Meredith rubbed a hand over Greta's head. "They're just so perfect."

Derek nodded in agreement. "They are. And you should know that I'll give you whatever you want. So one, two, eight, I'm game for anything. I want to make something perfect with you."

"Yeah?" Meredith smiled.

"Yeah." Derek caught her lips in a long, sweet kiss that made her a little faint.

The moment was abruptly ended when Nancy loudly said, "Obviously they don't call you McDreamy for nothing."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Katherine lay against Derek's chest, sound asleep, exhausted from a day of cousins and a huge meal, and Derek had one arm around her. The other wrapped around Meredith's waist, keeping her close as they sprawled on couch together that evening, after all of Derek's sister's had left. Meredith was dozing lightly, and Derek was feeling the turkey-effect himself.

"Are you sure you can't come out for Christmas?" his mother asked, as she joined them in the living room with a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, we're sure. The wedding's coming up really fast and we need a quiet holiday," Derek explained. On top of that, he was sure that Meredith would want to work Christmas to make up for the hours she had lost this week and would be losing with the wedding, but he didn't mention that to his mother.

Margaret Shepard sighed. "I understand. But I miss you. I wish you didn't live on the other side of the country."

A smile came to his face. "I'm so happy though. I finally have everything I've always wanted."

"That's what matter, then," Margaret agreed, smiling herself. "I'm proud of you, Derek."

Inexplicably, Derek felt tears prickle his eyes and he blinked quickly. "Thank you, Mom."

"Hmm." She sipped at her coffee, and glanced at her watch. "It's getting late. What time do you fly out tomorrow?"

"Around two, so we'll have to leave by ten," Derek answered.

Margaret nodded. "After this wedding I want all of you out here for a proper trip. I feel like we hardly got time to talk."

Derek nodded. "We'll work on that." He looked down at the sleeping Meredith in his arms, and moved his hand from her waist to touch the side of her face. His hand brushed past her cheek, and he traced fingers down the shell of her ear. Gently, he toyed with the lobe, squeezing it gently, and turning the tiny diamond earring she was wearing. He took great care not to wake her, knowing how exhausted she was between the mono and the long day of family.

"I think you need to get that beautiful family of yours up to bed," Margaret suggested after a few moments of silence.

Derek nodded, and carefully eased himself out from under Meredith, holding Katherine and supporting Meredith so her body fell back onto the couch.

"I'll be right back," he told his mother, leaving Meredith sleeping on the couch and carrying Katherine up the stairs.

He laid Katherine down in the crib that Margaret had kept for the grandchildren, and gently covered her with a blanket. Leaving the room, he went back downstairs and kissed his mother on the cheek before going over to Meredith. As carefully as he could, he lifted Meredith into his arms. She stirred slightly, but with a sigh, she wrapped her arms around his neck and relaxed into his grip.

They were already changed for bed, so all Derek had to do was lay his exhausted fiancé on the bed, and snuggled in next to her.

"I love you, Meredith," he whispered to her sleeping form. "And I'm so thankful that I have you."

**Please review.**


	13. Chapter 13

"So, Meredith, I was thinking that we could go dress shopping again some time this week," Izzie suggested as they ate Christmas dinner in Meredith's mother's house.

Meredith sighed, and took a bit of her ham, memories of the last dress shopping event far too clear. "Fine," she mumbled as soon as she swallowed.

"Well, I don't want to force you, but it's getting close to the wedding," Izzie pointed out.

Cristina looked up from cutting Riley's meat to jump into the conversion. "Yeah, wait any longer and you'll be getting married naked."

"I would be okay with that," Derek said mildly.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "We can go. Just not to that same place again."

"I figured," Izzie agreed. "There's another one that's suppose to be good. We can try that one."

"Okay," Meredith sighed. As the wedding approached she was getting more and more anxious. They has booked locations for the wedding and the reception and found a caterer and a photographer, but there were still so many little things that had to be done.

"Mer . . ." Derek trailed off, giving her a long look.

"What?"

"Never mind." He shook his head. "Now's not the time."

"Derek, tell me," Meredith demanded.

"Later, Mer."

Meredith glowered at him and turned back to her dinner. Derek had refused to let her work Christmas but she had worked until after two the night before and the exhaustion was catching up with her after a long day of presents and excitement.

"Mommy, you sad?" Katherine asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had overtaken the table.

Forcing a smile, Meredith brightly told her. "No, sweetie, I'm not sad. I'm just a little tired."

"Need nap," Katherine prescribed, making everyone at the table laugh.

"You're right, Katherine," Meredith told her seriously. "I do need a nap."

"So, did everyone have a good Christmas?" Burke asked.

"It was quiet," George stated.

Alex and Izzie nodded their agreement. The three of them occupied the Grey house, renting it from Meredith. Alex had moved in after Meredith had officially moved in with Derek and Katherine.

"Riley decided he liked paper more than presents," Cristina laughed.

"Yeah, and now the apartment is a disaster," Burke pointed out, smiling down at his son.

Izzie smiled at Riley, and then turned to Katherine. "Did you have a good Christmas?"

Katherine nodded with a grin. "I ated cookies and presents."

"You ate cookies and got presents," Derek corrected gently.

"Yes," Katherine nodded. "And cookies."

Izzie laughed. "What kind of presents did you get, Katherine?"

"A baby," Katherine stated.

"You showed me your baby when you got here. It's a very beautiful baby. Who gave it to you?" Izzie asked enthusiastically.

"Santa."

"Wow, what a lucky girl."

"Oh, Iz, you'll like this," Meredith said, jumping back into the conversation feeling a little more positive as she reflected on the nice, quiet Christmas morning she had had with Derek and Katherine. "Derek took all our best snapshots and framed them on our bedroom wall."

Izzie squealed a little. "That's adorable. When did you do that?" she asked Derek.

Derek laughed. "While she was working last night. When she came to bed she didn't even notice. And look at her earrings." Derek pushed back Meredith's hair to reveal the sparkling diamond dangles that hung from her ears.

"Oh how beautiful." Izzie leaned across the table to get a better look.

More Christmas morning stories were told as they finished Izzie's meal, and everyone was genuinely happy to be together in such a relaxed way. The little one's eyes lit up as Izzie carried out her homemade Yule Log, a creation that had pushed her baking skills to the limit.

Katherine and Riley had climbed into their mother's laps as the adults finished dessert and coffee, and Meredith was feeling ready to go to sleep herself. Having Katherine in her arms, half-asleep wasn't helping the feeling.

"You ready to go?" Derek whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her neck.

Meredith nodded, shifting Katherine so her head feel against her shoulder.

"I think we're going to head out," Derek told everyone, standing from his seat, and holding his arms out for Katherine. Meredith handed him the almost-sleeping little girl and stood from her seat. "It was a wonderful dinner, Izzie. Thank you."

Meredith went around the table to hug Izzie. "Thank you."

"Of course," Izzie said graciously. "Thanks for coming, you guys. It was good to have you. I can see you out."

"We'll be fine," Derek cut in. "Merry Christmas, everyone."

He and Meredith went to the door, and Meredith slipped her coat and shoes on. Derek handed her Katherine again, and did the same.

"Can you get her coat?" Meredith asked softly.

"Yep." Derek picked up Katherine's little red coat, and slipped it on sleepy, non-protesting body. He followed suit with her shoes.

"Mama, me baby," Katherine demanded tiredly.

Derek found Katherine's new doll on the end table located in the entry wall, and he handed it to her. "Here you go, princess. Do we have everything?" he asked Meredith.

"That bag."

He picked up the bag she pointed to, and placed his free hand on the small of her back to guide her out the door.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Derek walked into their bedroom after putting Katherine down for bed. Meredith was still dressed in her jeans and sweater, and she stood in front of the wall where he had put the pictures, staring at all the memories.

"Hey, beautiful." Derek went up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning his chin against her shoulder.

She relaxed into his arms, not taking her eyes from the pictures. "Thank you," she whispered. "For Christmas and just for everything."

"Hmm." He smiled, turning his head into her neck to breathe in the scent of her perfume. He nuzzled a little, squeezing her closer.

"Look how tiny she was," Meredith sighed.

Derek followed her gaze to Katherine's baby pictures. "She was beautiful. She still is."

"But she's not tiny like that anymore. She walks and talks and everything."

Derek chuckled into her throat. "That she does. Do you still want another tiny one?"

"Of course," Meredith sighed.

"And you still want to get married?"

Meredith turned in his arms. "Yeah, Derek, of course. What makes you think I don't want those things anymore?"

Derek sighed. He had just wanted confirmation, not an entire conversation. But the thing that was bothering him was still there, so they may as well talk about it before it got to be worse.

"You just seemed off when Izzie was talking about the wedding tonight," he explained. "Sort of like you aren't looking forward to it."

She jerked out of his arms. "You know, Derek, I don't have to be bright and shiny all the time to be happy about something," she said angrily.

"Okay, okay." Derek held up his hands in a position of surrender. He knew how tired she was and he was not interested in fighting with her.

"I'm freaking happy, okay," Meredith growled in a tone that did not imply happiness. "It's just stressful to get married, stressful to be a resident who is off of work all the time, and stressful to raise a two year old."

"I know," Derek said soothingly, taking her back into his arms in a hug. "I know, baby."

"You don't know," Meredith cried, pulling away. "You can't know, or you wouldn't be making me take off all the time. You wouldn't have scheduled such a long honeymoon and you would have let me work today."

Derek looked at her for a long moment, unsure about what to say. "Meredith, do you want to push off the wedding? We can postpone. It would be no problem."

She shook her head. "I just want to get it over with."

"Mer," Derek sighed. "That's not how you should be feeling about this. I want you to be looking forward to this. Is it too stressful? Should we elope?"

Meredith snorted.

"I'm serious. Mer, I want whatever will make you happy." He really did.

Meredith came back into the arms he had opened for her. "I am happy, Derek. Really. I want this wedding. I'm just tired."

"Okay," he said doubtfully. "But this conversation isn't over."

"We can talk later," Meredith agreed. "But now I just need some Christmas sex and to sleep for a very long time."

"Aren't you too tired?" Derek forced himself to ask.

"Never," Meredith declared, pushing him down onto the bed, and straddling him.

It wasn't like Derek was going to protest.

**Thank MLK for this update. This Monday off thing is giving me a good reason to push off homework in favor of writing my fics. Please review.**


	14. Chapter 14

With a sense of déjà vu Meredith lifted Katherine out of her car seat and held her hand as they walked across the parking lot to the dress shop. This one was smaller than the first one they had tried, and towards the edge of town instead of right in the middle of downtown.

A little bell jingled as Meredith pulled the door open, and she was greeted by Cristina, Riley, and Izzie who were already waiting inside.

"Hey, guys," Meredith said softly.

"Ley!" Katherine cried, catching sight of Riley in Cristina's arms.

"Hi, Mer," Cristina said, putting Riley down on the floor.

Katherine tottered over to Riley and patted his arm. "Ley," she assessed, before looked up at Meredith. "Ley here, mama."

"Riley is here, Katherine," Meredith smiled.

Izzie squatted down next to the toddlers. "Katherine, are you happy that Riley is here? Do you like to play with Riley?"

Katherine nodded seriously, but Cristina laughed. "They have not figured out playing together yet. Only how to steal toys."

They were interrupted as an older woman came out to the front of the store, and greeted Meredith with a smile.

"You must be the beautiful bride." When Meredith nodded her head slightly, the woman held out her hand. "My name is Helen. And is this your little girl?"

Meredith nodded again. "Her name is Katherine."

"Katherine," Helen exclaimed, smiling when Katherine looked up upon hearing her name. "Are you going to need a dress too?"

"A pitty dress," Katherine explained.

"She will need a pretty dress," Meredith confirmed. "Katherine is going to be our flower-girl."

"Lovely," Helen declared. "Finding her a dress will be the easiest part of all of this, I guarantee it. But, let's start with the bride. That is the most important dress. Do you have anything in mind?"

"Not really," Meredith admitted, turning to Cristina and Izzie for support.

Helen smiled, and gestured for them to follow her into the store. "That's no problem. We'll start by having you look at a few things, and figure out what you like."

Meredith lifted up Katherine and followed Helen to where the dresses were kept. The energy of the woman intimated her, but Meredith felt comfortable and accepted by her, putting her in a mood that made it feel somewhat possible to find a dress.

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Three hours later, Meredith had selected lavender, sleeveless bridesmaid dresses for Cristina and Izzie, and a white satin dress for Katherine that sported beaded embroidery and a full skirt, completed by a slender lavender sash, but was no closer to finding a dress for herself than she had been when she walked into the store.

Pouting, Meredith walked out of the dressing room in what had to be the hundredth dress she had put on.

"You hate it?" Helen guessed before Meredith could open her mouth.

"Yeah," Meredith agreed, smiling a little.

"What's wrong with this one?" Cristina groaned from where she sat on the floor with Katherine and Riley playing with some toys that Helen kept in the backroom for such occasions.

Frowning, Meredith pulled on the skirt. "It's just not me."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "That's not a reason."

"That's a perfectly valid reason," Helen contradicted.

"Yeah," Izzie agreed, handing Riley a stacking cup. "The dress needs to be perfect."

"Here, what about this one?" Helen handed Meredith another dress.

Meredith held it up, frowning at the spaghetti strap dress cut straight across the bodice.

"Put it on, then criticize," Helen ordered.

Gathering the yards of silky material into her arms, Meredith carried the dress into her dressing room, which had become a sea of rejected white dress. She unzipped and dropped the one she was currently wearing to the floor, taking a moment to hang in up. Stepping into the newest one, she pulled the strap over her arms, and reached behind to zip up the back, a skill that she had perfected throughout the afternoon.

Meredith looked into the mirror, and drew in a slight breath. The gown accented her breasts, and the fabric outlined her curves all the way to her waist, until it flared out at her hips to a full skirt. The hemline brushed the floor, and the skirt evenly touched the floor. It was a simplistic dress, but was exactly what Meredith had had in mind.

Opening the door of the dressing room, Meredith stepped out to the scrutiny of her audience.

"Oh, Meredith, I love it," Izzie gushed, standing up to walk around Meredith and admire the dress from the back.

"Hot," Cristina declared. "McDreamy will approve."

"What do you think, Meredith?" Helen asked, a twinkle in her eyes.

"It's perfect," Meredith sighed, running her hands down the skirt, and stepping more fully in front of the mirrors.

Helen nodded. "It was made for you." She started scrutinizing the dress, tugging on the fabric, and turning Meredith at different angles. "I want to take it in a little at the waist, and you'll need to come in again once you pick out shoes so we can work on the hem. All of you need to come back the week of the wedding so we can finalize alterations."

Meredith nodded, still in a daze as she stared at herself in the mirror. She had a dressed. Now it really felt like she was getting married.

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"No bed! No bed! No bed!"

"Katherine, no, you do not hit Mommy!"

"No! No!"

Derek sighed at the noises he heard when he walked into the house that evening. His little princess was screaming and crying upstairs, and Meredith was using her adorable, stern mommy voice. He hadn't seen either of his girls all day because Meredith had been off, and now it seemed that instead of bedtime snuggles, it would be bedtime struggles.

Ignoring the temptation to sit down in front of the TV with a beer, Derek hung up his jacket, and went up the stairs to help Meredith. In the nursery, he walked into Katherine in her purple pajamas and lying on the floor in full meltdown mode, and Meredith on the rocking chair, watching her cry.

Derek leaned against the doorway. "Hey, Mer."

She looked up at him with a brighter smile than he had expected given the circumstances. "Guess who didn't get a nap today."

Derek chuckled, and Katherine stopped crying long enough to notice his presence. "Daddy, no! No bed!"

Katherine stood up from the floor, and picked up her baby doll and ran over to Derek. "Play!" she demanded, shoving the doll at him. "Play!"

"No, Katherine, its bedtime now. We have to sleep," Derek explained in a calm voice.

"No!" Katherine started to cry again.

Derek was unsure what to do. Katherine rarely had tantrums like this, and even after just a minute with her it was obvious that it was out of exhaustion. Ironically, it was always hardest to get her to bed at night when she didn't nap. Reaching down, Derek gently picked her up, and she folded against him limply, still sobbing. He carried her over to Meredith, and sat down on the footstool of the rocking chair.

Meredith leaned forward, and stroked hair off Katherine's forehead, tenderly catching the tears running down her face. "You're okay, Katherine," she soothed.

Derek tilted his head and moved so he could lightly kiss Meredith's lips, holding Katherine close as her sobs slowly turned into hiccupping whimpers.

"She was so tired," Meredith commented as Katherine's eyes closed, and her hand curled into a fist around Derek's shirt.

"I can tell." He stroked a finger down his daughter's cheek, wiping away a tear and rocking her back and forth when her eyelids fluttered. "What were you two up to today? Why did she miss her nap?"

Meredith smiled, resting her elbows against Derek's knees as she leaned forward in her chair so their faces were close together. "We went shopping."

"Shopping!" Derek teased. "That doesn't usually make you so happy."

She bit her lip in the alluring way that drove Derek mad. "I got a wedding dress."

"Really?" Derek exclaimed in genuine surprise. He was thrilled that she was so happy about that; given her stresses lately, he hadn't even suspected that her excitement had come from anything wedding related.

Meredith nodded, a bright grin dominating her featured.

He tightened his grip on Katherine, moving to kiss Meredith again. "Is it sexy?"

"Cristina thinks so."

Derek laughed. "Is that all I get?"

"You'll see the dress soon enough," Meredith teased.

"I can't wait." He smiled as he looked into her twinkling eyes.

"Me either," Meredith breathed.

Derek felt his heart soar at that comment. Finally, he was sensing the excitement he had longed for her to feel. It seemed that as each item was checked off their wedding list, she relaxed and got more excited. Now that she had a dress, they were really down to just the details, which was good since they only had just over two months until their wedding day.

Changing the subject, Meredith asked, "Is she sleeping?"

Derek looked down to assess his daughter. "She is."

"Can I –"

Before she could finish the question, Derek slipped Katherine into her arms. "Of course you can hold her." He brushed his lips over Katherine's check, before cupping Meredith's face in his hands to kiss her deeply. Then he sat back down, content to spend a few quiet moments watching the most beautiful girls in the world.


End file.
